The Washington DC Story
by celrock
Summary: When Bobby Generic, Peter, Zack, Jesse, and the other Rugrats pay a trip to our nation's capital, let's just simply say, that our nation's capital, will never be the same again! A more detailed summary can be found inside the first chapter.
1. Heading Off for Vacation!

The Washington D.C. Story

Summary: When Bobby Generic, Peter, Zack, Jesse, and the other Rugrats pay a trip to our nation's capital, let's just simply say, that our nation's capital, will never be the same again! When Tommy wishes to be a spy, and Bobby wishes to be a detective, they're going to get more than they bargan for on this trip when Tommy is kidnapped by two under cover spies, who are actually criminals, and it's up to Detective Bobby Generic and the other Rugrats, to get Tommy back, before Taffy kicks off her world tour concert at National's Stadium post the big baseball game, on the last night of their trip. Story was inspired by a real trip I took to Washington D.C. back in the summer of 2012, and, everybody will be visiting all places I visited on that particular trip to our nation's capital. It should also be noted, that this story ends with Tommy turning three-years-old, making it the series finale of Rugrats, had the series continued for a tenth season.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original characters from Rugrats and Bobby's World, they're the property of their original creaters. I only own any OC's you don't recognize, including Zack and his Aunty Celeste, while Peter is owned by TCKing12, Jesse and his family are owned by Jesse Barrow Stories, Rosie, Mary and Sandy are owned by Nairobi-Harper, and Hazel and her family are owned by AsToldByHazelNut.

Chapter 1, Heading off for Vacation!

October 31, 2013…

Bobby POV

It all started on a stormy night in late October. I was suppose to go trick or treating at Halloween for the first time with my new friends, Tommy, Chuckie, Zack, Dil, Kimi, Jesse, Phil, Lil, Susie, Peter, Taffy, and not so friend, Angelica, but the weather had other plans for us. A huge rain storm came, canceling trick or treat for that year, causing us to have to stay indoors. Luckily, Taffy, our good friend and babysitter was watching us for the evening, as she was suppose to take us trick or treating around the neighborhood, and despite it being a dark and stormy Halloween night, Taffy had just the thing to cheer us up. We were all gathered on the living room floor of Tommy and Dil's house, about to hear a bedtime story, when Taffy, who was sitting in grandpa Lou's favorite easy chair, made her big announcement.

"Before we begin tonight's bedtime story minis, I have a big announcement." Said Taffy.

"What is it Taffy?" I asked.

"Well, after many months of playing gigs with my band, performing with children's song artist, Sherry Berry, and babysitting you minis, I'm about to have my big break." Said Taffy.

The toddlers gasp in concern over this news.

"Uh oh, are you going to have to go into the hospital and wear a cast?" I asked.

"Oh no Bobby, that's not what I meant. A big break means, something really exciting that you've been working really hard for, is about to happen, and for me, that's an international tour with my band, Taffy and the Salt Waters!" Said Taffy excitedly, as she leaped out of her chair.

"Oh wow! That's wonderful!" I said excitedly.

"And that's not the only thing. My big tour begins at National's Stadium in Washington D.C. next August, and I've invited all of you minis and your families, for seven days and six nights in our nation's capital, to tour the sights with me and my band, and attend our big world tour premier concert on the last night of your stay!" Said Taffy.

We all jumped up and down in excitement over the announcement of this big news.

"Oh boy that sounds like so much fun! Congratulations Taffy." I shouted.

"Thank you Bobby." Taffy replied.

End of Bobby POV

10 Months Later, August 5, 2014, 7 days before Tommy's third Birthday.

On this particular day, the Pickles, Finsters, Devilles, Randy, Lucy, and Susie Carmichael, Barrows, Wehrenbergs, Taffy and her band, the Generics, and King Peter Albany of the Confederacy, all met up at the Yucaipa Airport, to fly out of California, and head off to Washington D.C. Everybody was getting situated on the airplane for takeoff, when Stu and Drew were still standing up in their row of seats, quarreling as usual.

"Well for once Stu, you managed to get us on to the right airplane, unlike last year's cruise." Griped Drew.

"Hey, I didn't screw that up." Stu argued.

"Oh, and I suppose you didn't screw up your Reptar robot invention so we all had to go to Paris either. For once, at least we don't have to fool with one of your stupid inventions on this trip." Said Drew.

"For your information, Bro, the Air and Space museum is very interested in displaying my latest and greatest invention, my Dummi Bears hot air balloon, and I'll be presenting it to them this week while we're on our trip." Said Stu.

"Yeah, it's going to be a disaster." Muttered Drew.

"You wait and see, this is going to be my greatest invention yet." Said Stu.

"Oh we'll just see about that." Said Drew, just as a flight attendant came by.

"Excuse me gentlemen, you need to sit down, we're about to take off." Said the flight attendant.

Drew and Stu reluctantly took their seats.

"And you mam, you need to get off your phone, we're about to taxi out of here and take off." Said the flight attendant, pointing at Charlotte, who was on her phone.

"Excuse me mam but I'm trying to salvage a deal here. Jonathan?" Charlotte asked into the phone.

Drew reached up and snatched the phone away from Charlotte's ear.

"Charlotte will call you later, that is, if I let her, and she didn't sneak you on to this trip like she did when we went on the Biendaltown Express." Drew yelled into the phone, before flipping it closed before Jonathan could say anything, shutting it off, and thrusting it into his pants pocket.

"Hey! That's my phone Drew, give it back." Demanded Charlotte.

"You can have it back when we get there." Drew replied in a snappy tone.

"Oh, well you don't have to worry, I didn't sneak Jonathan on bored." Said Charlotte, as she reluctantly picked up a magazine out of the pocket on the seat in front of her, and started to read.

Once everybody was sitting comfortably in their seats, the flight attendant came on bored to announce that they were getting ready for take off, and screens came down from the ceiling to show that boring video about safety and security on the airplane. Once the video ended, the airplane taxied down the runway and took off to the sky. Near the back of the airplane, was a long row of seats that spread across the entire isle, where the toddlers sat. Tommy was next to the window on the left-hand side of the plane, with Zack immediately next to him on his right.

"Hey Tommy, when you flew with Peter to go visit Rosie a few months back, didn't you say you got to meet the piolot and help fly the plane?" Zack asked.

"Yep, I sure did." Tommy replied.

"Wow neat!" Said Phil.

"Yeah! We wanna meet the piolot!" Said Lil.

"I don't know you guys, maybe the piolot knows what he's doing, I really don't think he needs our help." Said Chuckie.

"Come on Chuckie it will be fun!" Said Kimi excitedly, as she hopped out of her seat.

"Oh, all right." Said Chuckie, as he joined up with his sister, Phil, Lil, Jesse, Zack, and Dil.

"Ok guys, follow me." Said Tommy, as he led everybody down the isle of the airplane to the cockpit.

No sooner had Tommy pushed open the door to the cockpit, when the co-piolot peered down at them, an unpleasant look on his face.

"Hey! What are you kids doing here? Go back to your seat!" Snapped the co-piolot.

"Yeah, go back to your seat before we have an accident." Barked the piolot.

Tommy turned around, a look of disappointment on his face.

"Sorry you guys, I guess this piolot and co-piolot aren't very nice." Said Tommy.

"What happened? I thought you tolded us when you went with Peter to see Rosie, the piolot and co-piolot were very nice!" Said Kimi.

"Yeah, they were, I don't know what happened." Said Tommy, as he led everybody back to their seats, the look of disappointment never leaving his face.

"Don't worry Tommy, maybe they're just cranky. It is a long flight. Maybe after they have a nappy after we land, maybe they'll be nicer on the way back." Said Zack, as he put a reassuring comforting hand on Tommy's shoulder, as they made it back to their seats.

They climbed into their seats, as Tommy just stared out the window, and unknown by the other toddlers, an uneasy feeling came over him. His last two trips he had taken hadn't gone so well. When he went to see Rosie, he got very sick with a stomach bug, and right before he left, Rosie caught it from him, and he had to head home before she got all better. Then, just a few short weeks prior to going on this trip, he had gone camping with his friend Bobby, his grandpa Lou, and Bobby's uncle Ted, only to end up with a case of poison ivy and food poisoning in the end, more or less, ruining that trip for him. And now, he was heading to Washington D.C. and all he wanted to do was let his friends have the same experience he had when going to meet Rosie of meeting the piolot and co-piolot, only to learn they weren't very nice, nearly scaring Chuckie and Dil and leaving Tommy to feel disappointed. He was only hoping things would get better once they got there.

As the never ending flight continued, two-year-old Tommy eventually, had to go to the bathroom. So he quietly hopped down from his seat and headed up through the isle to the small bathroom on the airplane. As he was making his way to the potty, he overheard several conversations from several people that had come along with him on the trip. The first, was from Peter and Bobby's big sister Kelly, who were sitting together.

"Oh Peter, I can't believe that after we return from this trip, I'm gonna be heading off to college. Like, I feel so grown up! And I only hope that on this trip, I can prove to mom and dad just how grown up I am." Said Kelly.

"Well, I think you're pretty grown up already. But careful now, I'm a king, so guess in a way, I had to grow up a lot sooner than most people my age, and sometimes, it's kind of sad. I mean, I like being a king and all, but sometimes, I just, wish I could be a normal fourteen-year-old teenager like everybody else." Said Peter.

That was all he heard of that conversation, as he passed by the seat where Taffy was sitting next to one of her band mates.

"You know, I am so excited for this tour, it's a dream come true! Also, it makes me feel so grown up finally taking this trip, as going to Washington D.C. well, it's the farthest I've been away from home in a very long time!" Tommy heard Taffy say, before he had moved past her seat, where he overheard Martha and Howie Generic talking.

"Oh Howie, I can't believe it, this is the last family trip we'll all be taking together before my oldest leaves the nest and heads off to college in the fall now don't you know." Said Martha, as a tear started to roll down her cheak.

"Now Martha, this will be a great opportunity for Kelly. Getting out there in the world, going off to college. Our little baby girl is all grown up. And the trip is going to be so much fun! Think of the educational benefits it will have on everybody. And what a great educational experience for Bobby and Derek especially." Said Howie.

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, Bobby will be entering first grade and Derek will be entering seventh grade this year, so it will be a good way to get the boys ready to go back to school." Said Martha, as Tommy made it past their seat, out of earshot of the Generic parents.

Then, he overheard something that really caught his attention. It was a conversation his parents were having.

"Oh Stu honey, this trip is going to be so great! Visiting our nation's capital is something I've always wanted to do." Said Didi.

"And just think Deed, at the end of our trip, Tommy turns three-years-old. My little champ, no longer a baby anymore." Said Stu, as Tommy reached the door to the bathroom, which was slightly past his parents seat on the airplane.

Tommy just stood there at the door, as he had nearly forgotten about why he was there in the first place, as he thought about what his dad had just said. He knew he wouldn't stay a baby forever, but for the day to practically be here? And for this to be his final week and vacation as a baby? It was exciting and sad at the same time. As a mixture of emotions fell over the two-year-old, staring at the door to the small bathroom on the airplane, nearly ready to turn around and run back to his seat, Derek came up behind him.

"Hey sticky fingers, if you're gonna use the toilet, then go already. If you're just standing there to make trouble, get out of my way, you're not the only one on this airplane you know." Griped Derek, as he squeezed past Tommy, who then remembered why he was there.

By this point, the toddler had to go really badly, and he'd better go now, before he wet his pants. He went into the bathroom, used the potty, then headed back to his seat, where he was going to tell all of his friends about the news he had overheard from his parents, that this was their last week as babies, but when he got back there, he found that everybody was asleep, except his brother Dil.

"Uh, Dilly, can I talk to you?" Tommy asked, standing right in front of his one-year-old brother, who grew annoyed very quickly.

"Move Tommy, can't you see I'm trying to watch the movie?" Dil asked, irritated.

"What movie?" Tommy asked, unaware that the airplane people had put on a movie for everybody to watch while Tommy was using the potty.

Dil pointed up at one of the overhead televisions that had shown the safety movie before they took off, now showing a Goober movie, the last thing Tommy really wanted to be watching.

"Oh, sorry." Said Tommy, as he made his way back over to his seat, sat down, and closed his eyes, hoping he could take a nap, avoiding the movie and making what felt like the longest flight of his life, go faster.

While the toddlers took a nap and watched the Goober movie, in another part of the airplane, Angelica, Susie and Bobby were all having their own little conversation about the trip.

"My mommy says we're going to where the President lives." Said Angelica.

"Wow! You know, I was President of my kindergarten class." Said Bobby.

"Oh really? Well, I'm starting kindergarten after we get back from this trip, and I'm gonna become president." Said Angelica.

"I don't know Angelica, there's lots of stuff you have to do to become president." Said Bobby.

"Like what?" Angelica asked.

"Well, in order to become president, there's three things you must do. Mud slinging, make and keep promises, and spread rumors." Said Bobby.

"I can do all that, no problem." Said Angelica.

"Uh, correction Angelica, I think you'd make a good mud slinger and rumor spreader, but in the time I've known you, I've never seen you be able to keep a promise." Said Susie.

"Oh we'll just see about that. Don't forget, I can give pretty good speeches too." Said Angelica.

"If I may Angelica, that's another important thing. When giving your speech, don't forget to start off with a joke." Said Bobby.

"What kind of joke Bobby?" Susie asked.

"Here's one. Why did the deer cross the road?" Bobby asked.

"Why?" Angelica and Susie asked.

"Because it was the chicken's day off! Get it? Chicken's day off?" Bobby said.

Susie laughed, Angelica didn't, confused by the joke.

"Anything else Bobby?" Angelica asked.

"Oh yeah, and it doesn't end, until the fat lady sings." Said Bobby.

"Well I guess my speech is never gonna end, because there's gonna be no fat lady singing when I become president." Said Angelica.

"Enough already Angelica, everyone knows that I'm gonna be the next one elickted to be president, making me the first woman and second black person to become president of America." Said Susie.

"The only reason why you'll be the second black person to become president, is because of that Obama person. You'll be the second woman to become president, after I've lived for two terms at the white house, which will no longer be white when I'm done, as my favorite color is blue polkadots. And have you ever heard of Angelica care? It's like Obama care except with Angelica care, everybody has to take care of me. That's right, everybody has to give me all of their cookies and candy, and there will be no more broccoli and time outs. That's right, broccoli and time out will be taken away from America, forever!" Said Angelica.

" _Oh boy, Angelica running for president? I can see just how this is going to go._ " Susie thought to herself, as she leaned back in her seat on the airplane, and the five-year-old girl started to have a daydream.

"And now, the babies have voted, and the next president and vice president of the United States are, Angelica C Pickles for President, and Harold Frumkin for Vice President!" Said an announcer as several toddlers in the audience, stood up and jumped up and down, while another several, booed with disappointment.

"Hey! I was suppose to win." Cried Susie.

"Sorry Susie, Angelica won by two extra votes over you." Said Bobby.

"Who would vote for her?" Susie asked.

"Phil and Lil, they were amazed by her awesome mud slinging."Said Bobby, pointing to a pile of mud that had collected in the corner of the auditorium.

"My dumb Americans. Yeah I could call you guys my fellow Americans like some bush who claimed he was president for years use to call you, but you're just a bunch of dumb babies to me, so I'm gonna call you dumb, cuz that's what you are. Now, my dumb Americans, as your new president, I want the white house painted with blue polkadots, and get rid of every broccoli and time out chair across the country. And to my Vice President Hairball, get me two bazillion cookies, as I decree Angelica Care, going into effect immediately." Demanded Angelica, who was standing up behind a podium.

"Do me a favor? Call me by my real name please?" Harold asked.

"As president, I will call you whatever I want Hairball. Now, as your new president, I will make sure all of your toys get fixed." Said Angelica, as she stepped on Tommy's plastic screwdriver, which had rolled beneath her seat, smashing it into tiny pieces.

"Hey!" Cried Tommy from the audience.

"Don't worry mellon head, I'll fix it." Said Angelica teasingly, as she picked up the broken pieces, and threw them into the audience, scattering them in every which direction.

"And one more thing. Anybody named Susie Carmichael must be banished from the country. I will not have no ladies singing at the end of my speech." Said Angelica, as two guards came up to Susie, put her in handcuffs, and took her away.

"No President Angelica, wait! Don't you care about me?" Susie cried, as Angelica just stood behind the podium, laughing her head off.

"Now America is mine, all mine!" Scoffed Angelica, as she put a huge grin on her face, as Susie was drug away into total darkness, unaware of her surroundings.

"Susie? Susie?" She heard her mother Lucy calling in the distance, as Susie was snapped out of her daydream, noticing she was still in her seat on the airplane, that had finally landed in Washington D.C., and people were making their way out of their seats and heading off of the airplane.

"We've arrived sweetheart, it's time to go." Said Lucy, who was standing in front of Susie in the isle of the three seats where she, Angelica and Bobby were sitting.

"Ok mommy." Susie replied, as she picked up her carry on Cynthia backpack, took her mother's hand, and everybody walked off of the airplane into the International Airport and Train Station, and met up with the others.

Once all of the toddlers were strapped into their strollers, and everybody had congregated at baggage claim and picked up their luggage, Didi pulled out a piece of paper from her purse, containing the itinerary of that week's schedule.

"So where to first Didi?" Howard D asked.

"Our first stop of the day is a trip to Capitol Hill, where we'll be meeting with California Congressman, Paul Cook, and getting our picture taken." Said Didi, as she led everybody to the exit of the airport, and everybody walked through the streets of Washington D.C. from the airport to Capitol Hill, pushing the little ones in their strollers.

"California? I thought we were from America." Said Chuckie, confused.

"California is in America Chuckie, that's where we live." Bobby replied, as he was walking next to Chuckie, holding his hand.

Tommy had thought about telling the others what he had heard on the airplane, but he had nearly forgotten all about it, when he was met by the sights and sounds of Washington D.C. as he road past in his twin stroller, riding next to Dil.

"You boys are going to get to see so much on this trip. The International Spy Museum, the National Zoo, and we're even meeting up with somebody at the Natural Museum of History in the forensics lab to learn about bones!" Said Didi excitedly, as they made their way to Capitol Hill.

"I hear the Spy Museum has some pretty good java at the Spy Café too!" Said Betty.

"Yeah! And we're gonna get to go to the Jefferson Memorial too!" Said Howard D.

"Not just the Jefferson Memorial, but we'll also see the memorials for Franklin D. Rosavelt and Martin Luther King Junior too. Plus, we'll be meeting up with one of the best tour guides to work with from the National Parks Service, Miss Jen Epstein." Said Didi, as she skimmed down at her itinerary again, before turning back to the sidewalk, to look where they were going.

"Did you hear that Lil? We're going to see Jeffery's memory!" Said Phil.

"That's the Jefferson Memorial dummies." Said Angelica.

"I also heard we're going to the Library of Congress!" Said Chaz excitedly.

"Sounds interesting! My folks in Japan are interested in checking out everything we see on this trip, so I'm planning to pick up postcards at every stop, and sending them off to my family." Said Kira.

"That's a great idea Kira." Said Chaz.

"Guess who's playing Saturday night at the baseball game before Taffy's big concert?" Stu asked Drew.

"Who?" Drew asked.

"Remember Bucky Majors, who use to play for the Grisley's? This Saturday will be his last game before he retires from baseball, as he fills in for one of the players on the Nationals team. They'll be playing against the Braves." Said Stu.

"Hmmm, I know who you're talking about, but I can't place my finger on what he looks like." Said Drew.

"Don't you remember that game we went to last year?" Stu asked.

"No." Drew replied.

"Oh that's right, pop, Tommy and I went to that game. Dad won them in some radio contest." Stu muttered.

"Too bad pop had some important wombat meeting this week, causing him and Lulu to not get to come with us." Said Drew.

Tommy turned to Zack, who was in the stroller next to his, as Celeste was now next to Stu and Didi.

"Hey Tommy, I hear we're gonna get to go to lots of cool places on this trip, it's gonna be like a huge aventure!" Said Zack excitedly.

"Uh, yeah, but, there's something you should know that I heardid about on the airplane." Said Tommy.

"What is it?" Zack asked.

But before Tommy could respond, they stopped at their final destination.

"Here we are everybody, welcome to Capitol Hill." Said Didi, as a huge building came into view.

It was a huge building, with two long flights of steps on either side of the front of the building.

"Wow!" Everybody exclaimed, at the sight of the huge building.

"Why are there two sets of steps mommy?" Susie asked.

"One side is the House of Representatives, and the other side is the Senate. Didi, do you know where Paul Cook is meeting us?" Lucy asked.

"On the House of Representatives side, which is over here." Said Didi, leading everybody over to the staircase on the left, as the adults, Taffy, Peter, Kelly and Taffy's other band members helped get all of the strollers up the stairs, and everybody made their way to the top.

After waiting several minutes, Paul Cook walked out of the building. Upon walking out, he instantly recognized King Peter Albany and walked upto him.

"Peter, I see you made it." Said Paul Cook, shaking Peter's hand.

"Yes, I did. Taffy, please meet Paul Cook, one of our fine congressmen from California." Said Peter, as he jestured to Taffy, who came up and shook his hand.

"Taffy from Taffy and the Salt Waters. We our honored to have you beginning your big tour at our Nationals Stadium this coming Saturday." Said Paul.

"Thank you." Taffy replied.

She went around and had Paul meet the rest of the families and their kids.

"Wow, what cute children and future voters of America." Said Paul.

"I'm gonna be the next President!" Said Angelica excitedly.

"How old are you little girl?" Paul asked.

"First of all, my name's Angelica, and second of all, I'm not a little girl, I'm five-years-old, and will be starting kindergarten next month." Said Angelica.

"Ah, well, you have to be thirty-five-years-old before you can become president, but maybe you could become a congressman, like me!" Said Paul, shaking Angelica's hand, who looked a bit disappointed, as she really didn't want to wait thirty years before becoming president.

"So, I bet you'd like to take some pictures with us." Said Didi.

"Yes, and I don't have much time, so it will have to be quick." Said Paul, as everybody gathered on the steps for a photo.

Howie G, who wasn't interested in being in the picture, took the photograph, before Paul had to tell everyone farewell, and head back into his office.

"Goodbye, and thank you." Said Taffy, as she waved goodbye, seeing Paul Cook head back through the doors.

"Thank you, and good luck to all of you, enjoy your stay." Said Paul, as he disappeared from view.

After that, they went around to the back of the building to the gift shop, where Kira picked up some postcards, and then, they caught a bus that came by the back of the building, and road it to the hotel where they'd be staying, The Western Inn.

While riding on the buss…

"So Deed, what are we going to do for dinner?" Betty asked.

"Well, let's get checked in at the hotel, and then we'll figure that out." Said Didi, as the bus pulled up at a bus stop near the hotel.

Everybody made their way off of the bus and headed into the hotel, where Peter went up to the desk in the lobby.

"King Peter Albany here, with Taffy and the Salt Waters tour, and fan club." Said Peter, as he pulled a bunch of papers out of a briefcase he was carrying.

"Oh yes, King Peter Albany, we've been expecting you." Said a dark haired lady behind the desk, as she took the papers from him and typed some stuff into a computer, then turned back to Peter.

"Several rooms on the eighth floor and two rooms on the sixth floor have been blocked off for you and your guests. We have a contenintal breakfast that starts every morning from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and we hope you enjoy your stay." Said the lady, as she passed out room keys to Peter, who distributed one key to each family.

"Well, so far so good, at least we can sleep in comfort this time, not like what happened at Club Fred." Said Betty.

"Uh, Club Fred, like, what's that?" Kelly asked.

"Awe, you guys have been to that g golly luxturious resort in the caribian? Wow! I've always wanted to go, what's it like?" Martha asked.

"Well Martha, it's wonderful, once the young ones lead you to the pirate treasure, and get you upgraded to a five room suite. Up until then though, it was quite uncomfortable, being cramped into one tiny room." Peter explained, as he led everybody to the elevators, and they headed up to the eighth floor to figure out who would stay in what rooms.

"Like, what happened?" Kelly asked.

"To make a long story short Kelly, a good tip to remember. Never use room reservations as sandwich wrappings. That's one of the reasons why I handled them this time, to make sure nothing like that would happen. Not to mention, while Taffy has made a lot of money from gigs and babysitting for this tour, it's thanks to money from the Confederacy's treasury that's paying for everybody's hotel stay, and the tours we've booked for this upcoming week, and the baseball game tickets and concert. Bottom line, I paid for this trip to Washington D.C." Said Peter.

"Oh Peter, you're truly a dream boat." Said Kelly, as she gazed passionately into Peter's eyes.

"Woe! I think Peter's gots the love bug!" Said Phil.

"Nah, he don't look sick like I was when I metted Rosie." Said Tommy.

"I don't know if I want my daughter hanging around so closely to the king of the Confederacy." Howie G said to himself.

"Ok everybody, let's split up and figure out who's sleeping where." Said Didi, as she went to the very end of the hall and claimed the end suite for her family.

Everybody split up, and in the end, Peter had a room to himself on the sixth floor, with Taffy and her band members next-door, and on the eighth floor, one suite was set aside for the Devilles and Barrows, another for the Generics, Susie and Angelica's family shared another suite, while Tommy, Chuckie, and Zack's families took the largest one at the very end of the hall. Where the Wehrenbergs, Pickles and Finsters were staying was eclipsed with a small kitchen, so that's where meals and hang out activities would take place on the bulk of this trip when spending downtime at the hotel.

Once everybody was settled in their rooms, it was concluded that after a day of traveling and getting a photo taken with a California congressman, everybody was exhausted. So Peter ordered pizza for everybody from a nearby Dominos Pizza that wasn't far from the hotel, and once the three party size pepperoni, cheese, and vegetarian pizzas were delivered to the hotel, everybody gathered in the Wehrenbergs, Pickles, and Finsters suite for some dinner, and saw to getting ready for bed.

"So Taffy, isn't your friend Sandy coming to see your big concert?" One of Taffy's band mates asked at dinner.

"Yes, but she's not coming until Friday night." Taffy replied.

"Hey guys, I forgotted that Sandy's coming, and you know who she's bringing with her?" Tommy asked excitedly.

"I know, Rosie and her sister Mary." Zack replied.

Tommy nodded with a huge grin on his face as he took another bite of cheese pizza.

"Well it's getting late, we'd better get the kids ready for bed. Tomorrow is our tour of the International Spy Museum." Said Didi, as she scooped up Dil to take him into the bathroom to give him his bath.

"Yep, we'll see you guys bright and early in the morning down at breakfast." Said Betty, as she scooped up Phil and Lil, and she and Howard G left for their room.

Once everybody was ready for bed and getting ready to go to sleep, Kimi and Dil off in one little bed, with Tommy, Chuckie and Zack across the room in another bed, the three older kids turned to one another.

"Hey Tommy, seems you were trying to tell me something earlier, but you kept getting interrupted. What did you hear about on the airplane that was so aportant?" Zack asked.

"Uh, guys, well, this is our lastest week as babies." Tommy replied.

Chuckie and Zack gasp.

"What are you talking about Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

"I'm serious Chuckie, I hearded Taffy, Peter and Bobby's sister Kelly, and even my mommy and daddy talking, and at the end of our trip, we're gonna be all growed up, this is our lastest week as babies, so we've gots to make it the bestest week of our lives, and get ready to become growed ups." Said Tommy.

"Oh, I think I get it. But what, what makes us growed ups anyway? I mean, all of us except for Dil is potty trained, and most of us are starting preschool after we get back, and I can already read, so what else is there that we need to do?" Zack asked.

"Well, find jobs we'll be good at, find someone to marry, which I've already founded, and I'll see Rosie later this week, and the hardest part of all, talking to the growed ups." Said Tommy.

"I don't know if I'm ready to be a growed up, I don't think I'm ready." Said Chuckie.

"Come on Chuckie, you're like, four-years-old? I'm surprised you weren't already growed up when I metted you lastest year at your third birthday." Said Zack.

"Yeah that's true, maybe my mommy and daddy forgotted, and now, everybody remembered. Oh boy." Said Chuckie.

"Don't worry, growing up is gonna be fun, and tomorrow we're going to a spy museum. I've never been to a spy museum before, let's just try to enjoy this trip and not worry about growing up till the day comes. I bet, we're more ready than we thinked we are. Anyway, goodnight you guys." Said Tommy, as he rolled over and went to sleep.

"Night guys." Said Chuckie, as he snuggled up with WahWah, and went to sleep.

"Yeah, goodnight." Said Zack, as he too curled up with his white bear Frosty, and went to sleep, eager to visit the International Spy Museum the next day.

And this, ends chapter 1. So, how will the trip to the International Spy Museum go the following day? We'll find out in chapter 2, so please, do stay tuned!

Author's Note: So, what do you all think so far? I promise, if it's been boring up to this point, it will get better as the story continues. So, at this point, the babies are led to believe this is their last week as toddlers before they become adults at the end of the week, and, they finally learn where they're really from in the country, thanks to Bobby telling them. I mean, ever since the episode, "Discover America," they knew they lived in America, but it wasn't until this story, that they learned what state they were from. They won't learn about the town in that state though until they're much older, probably at some point during preschool. And in terms of how this trip in some ways, parodies the trip I took for real to Washington D.C. back in 2012, they'll be visiting the different places in a different order than I did, with the exception of the baseball game and concert happening on their last night, as that's when it happened for me, only I saw the Wallflowers in concert at National's Stadium, not Taffy and the Salt Waters, and when I went to Capitol Hill, I also had my picture taken with a congressman, but it wasn't one from California, rather, it was one from New York named Chris Gibson. Anyway, this concludes the first of the eight chapters I plan to write for this story, since I got so delayed on starting this story, as my original plan was to start it over the weekend, and be wrapping it up today, but I also have some other plans throughout the week, I think I'm going to try to post 2 chapters a day, wrapping it up on Thursday afternoon, if life and time allows me to stick to the schedule I have mapped out for completing this story this week. So, be looking for chapter 2, coming soon!


	2. The International Spy Museum

Chapter 2, The International Spy Museum

August 6, 2014, 6 days until Tommy's third birthday.

The following morning, everybody got up early and headed down for breakfast, where Tommy filled all of the toddlers who he hadn't informed the previous night about what he had overheard on the airplane while traveling the previous day.

"So at the end of this week, we're not gonna be babies no more?" Phil asked.

Tommy nodded.

"You know, I'm gonna miss being a baby Phillip." Said Lil.

"Yeah, me too Lillian." Said Phil, as the twins started to cry.

"Now guys, maybe growing up will be fun! Besides, we're practically there, we just, gotta get through this nextest week, I'm sure by the end of this week, we're gonna be happy to be all growed up." Said Tommy.

Everyone went on to eat the rest of their breakfast, get ready to go, and before they all knew it, a lemozine arrived at the hotel to pick everyone up and take them to the International Spy Museum.

"Your chariot, awaits." Said the driver of the lemozine, as he got out and met Peter Albany, Taffy, and her band at the door of the hotel, confirming that it was the right group he was picking up, then, everybody got into the lemozine, and they were on their way.

Upon arriving at the International Spy Museum, they all climbed out of the lemonzine and went inside, where they met their tour guide. Once they met up with the tour guide, a skinny guy named Max, they started the tour, looking at the area of the museum that consisted of more modern spy gadgets. As the tour carried on, Tommy looked around, fascinated by everything he was seeing.

"So Tommy, I overheard you and your friends talking at breakfast. You really think you're going to be adults by the end of the week?" Bobby asked, as he was walking along side Tommy and Dil's double stroller.

"Well, my daddy said I wouldn't be a baby no more, so I guess that makes us growed ups." Tommy replied.

"So Tommy, what do you wanna do when you're all growed up then?" Chuckie asked, who was on the opposite side of the stroller, walking next to Dil's side.

"Well, I wish to be a spy, all of these things they use look really neat!" Said Tommy excitedly.

"I don't know, some of this stuff looks kind of creepy." Chuckie replied, as he looked around nervously.

"Well I wish to be a detective. Yep, Detective Bobby is who I'm gonna be." Said Bobby.

After going through several rooms of looking at gadgets, it was nearly time to move on to the next part of the tour.

"So before we move on to looking at the ancient history of spies, does anybody have any questions?" Asked Max the tour guide.

This caused all of the adults to huttle around Max, and start asking their burning questions, while Peter, Kelly, Taffy and her band went off to the gift shop to look around, as they were growing bored with the tour, and Kelly wanted some alone time with Peter, as she got this suspicious feeling that her parents didn't like seeing them together.

Zack happen to notice that the tour had stopped, and the adults were asking the tour guide several questions, that were causing the toddlers to get bored, so he struck up an idea.

"Hey, what are we sitting around here for, let's go on our own tour of the museum." Suggested Zack, as he climbed out of his stroller on to the floor of the museum.

"Good idea Zack, come on guys, let's go." Said Tommy, as everybody else followed in pursuit, and before everyone knew it, the toddlers were once again, off on their own, to check out the spy museum.

The first thing Tommy found on a nearby display case, appeared to be a bottle of shaving cream.

"Look at this guys." Said Tommy, picking up the bottle.

"It looks like that stuff my daddy uses on his face in the morning." Said Jesse, as Tommy handed him the bottle and he examined it, only he couldn't get the top off.

"Hey! The top doesn't open." Said Jesse, frustrated, as he threw the bottle to Kimi, who caught it, only to twist off the bottom.

"Wait a minute you guys, the bottom comes off." Said Kimi.

"You mean it opens upside down?" Zack asked, as he studied what Kimi had in her hand.

Peering into the open bottle of shaving cream, he saw it was empty.

"Wait a minute you guys, I don't think this is a real bottle of shaving cream." Said Tommy.

"It isn't?" Chuckie asked.

"No, this looks like something spies must use, to keep stuff a secret, you know, like how we hide our faces behind masks at Halloween." Said Tommy.

"Oh, I get it." Said Chuckie.

"And look, a camera!" Said Lil, as she got down a camera that was disguised to look like a cigarette lighter from a nearby display case.

"Doesn't look like any camera I ever sawed." Said Chuckie.

"Another secret gadget then." Said Zack.

"Yep." Bobby replied, as he had joined up with the toddlers at this point, who were eyeing all of the gadgets in the museum, and instead of putting them back, they were leaving them on the floor.

"Hey look! Poop!" Said Phil, as he picked up what appeared to be dog poop, only after playing with it for a few minutes, he noticed a door on the bottom that opened up.

"Hey! This isn't real poop, it looks like another hiding place." Said Phil.

"But what would somebody wanna hide in poop?" Zack asked.

"I don't know but it looks like the right size to hide a key." Phil suggested, as his sister started to grab at it.

"I wanna see the poop Phillip." Argued Lil, as she tried to grab at the dogpoop exhibit.

"Hey, I saw it first, it's mine!" Argued Phil.

"Mine!" Argued Lil, who grabbed at Phil's hands, causing Phil to lose his grip on the dogpoop gadget, sending it flying across the room, causing it to land on the floor, where another group touring happened to walk in its path, and one of the adults tripped on the dogpoop gadget, and fell to the floor.

"Guys, we'd better get out of here before we get in trouble." Said Chuckie nervously, fearing they'd get caught by the tour of people who were stopped by their mess, so the toddlers quickly dropped all of the spy gadgets they had been looking at on the floor of the museum, as they scurried off to another room.

The room they arrived in, had something else that was even more interesting to the rugrats.

"Wanna see what it's like to be a real spy? Come crawl through this replica of a real airduct, and get the total spy experience!" Said a tour guide, who was near a ladder that climbed up to a replica of an airduct for kids and adults alike to crawl through.

"Wow! That looks really neat you guys, I wanna give it a try." Said Tommy, as he made his way up to the line that had gathered of kids who were interested in checking out the airduct.

When they approached the line, they ran into a two-year-old toddler with buttery blond hair, who turned, and stopped dead in her tracks, as her eyes landed on Phil. Upon staring at Phil, the little girl's jaw dropped, amazed by what she saw.

"What's wrong Phillip?" Lil asked, noticing Phil had the same goofy dreamy expression on his face.

"A girl." Phil replied in a seductive tone.

Noticing this, Tommy and Zack turned to see who Phil was staring at.

"Oh my gosh! That's Hazel! Rosie's bestest friend." Said Tommy and Zack simultaneously, as both of them had met her at one time or another over the last few months. Tommy met Hazel at Rosie's birthday party, and Zack met her when he accompanied his aunt on a business trip to Boston, and they attended a barbecue at Rosie's apartment.

"Hi Tommy, hi Zack, what a pleasant surprise! I wasn't aspecting to see you guys here." Said Hazel.

"Hi Hazel." Said Zack.

"So, uh, where's Rosie?" Tommy asked.

"Rosie's not here, but she'll be coming in a few days. I'm here with my mommy and daddy, as they're on something called a business trip. They had meetings or something, so they lefted me with a friend of theirs who works here at the Spy Museum, and I was about to check out the airduct." Said Hazel, as she turned her gaze towards Phil again.

"Uh, hi Hazel." Said Phil, as he pulled out a worm from his overalls pocket, and offered it to Hazel, dangling it in front of her face.

"Put that away Phillip, I don't know if she likes wormies like we do." Said Lil.

"Actually, I love wormies." Said Hazel, as she started to nibble on one end of the worm, Phil, putting his mouth on the other end of the worm.

It was like a Lady and the Tramp moment, as Hazel and Phil ate the dangling worm, inching their toddler faces, closer and closer to one another, until there was no worm left, and their faces were practically touching.

"Wow! That was nummy!" Said Hazel.

"Yeah, it was." Said Phil in that dreamy voice.

"What's your name?" Hazel asked.

Lost in space, Phil nearly didn't notice what Hazel was saying, until Lil poked him in the ribs.

"Oh, uh, my name's Phil." Said Phil.

"What a nice name." Said Hazel, as she and Phil continued to stare at one another, and get to know one another.

Lil, feeling sad and neglected, turned towards the others.

"Something wrong Lil?" Tommy asked.

"Phil don't wanna play with me no more. He'd rather be with Hazel." Lil replied.

"Don't worry Lil, I'll take care of you, and we'll go into that airduct together, as it looks like fun!" Said Jesse, as he came up to Lil and grabbed her hand.

"Wait! Let go Jesse, I'm not ready yet." Cried Lil, as the hyper active two-year-old was barely paying attention, until Lil pushed him to the ground, causing him to cry.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice, you made Jesse cry." Said Kimi, as she came over to see if Jesse was ok.

Once Jesse was calmed down and Phil and Hazel had enough of staring longingly at one another, Tommy got everybody's attention, as it was finally their turn to climb up the ladder and crawl through the airduct.

"Guys, are you ready? It's our turn." Said Tommy.

"Our turn to do what?" Phil asked.

"To crawl through the airduct maze thing. Come on Chuckie." Said Tommy, as he started up the ladder, Chuckie, starting to hesitantly follow him, when Zack got in his way.

"Uh, what are you doing Zack?" Chuckie asked.

"Come on Chuckie, you know you're afraid of heights and the dark, do you really, wanna go up there?" Zack asked.

"No, but, Tommy wants me to go with him." Chuckie replied.

"If I'm not mistaken and I'm not, isn't this our lastest week as babies?" Zack asked.

"Yeah? What's your point?" Chuckie asked.

"Well, I know you and Tommy are bestest friends and all, but I've noticed in the time I've known you guys, that it seems as if he doesn't seem to really care about your feelings." Said Zack.

"I do too care about him." Tommy shouted, now halfway up the ladder to the airduct replica.

Chuckie just stood dead in his tracks on the floor, turning his gaze from Tommy to Zack, then back at Tommy, who was inching even closer to the dark opening of the airduct replica, then back at Zack again. Then, once Tommy was in the opening of the airduct, he turned around, his face staring back down at Chuckie, waiting for him to come up and join him.

"Are you really gonna let Tommy lead you around for the rest of your life? If we really are gonna be all growed up at the end of this trip, I certainly wouldn't wanna be following somebody around forever. There comes a time Chuckie, when you need to make your own choices, and not always go along with everybody else." Whispered Zack into Chuckie's ear at this point.

Chuckie gulped and took a deep breath. For the first time in his four years of life, he realized that what Zack was saying was right. If he was going to be an adult, then he needed to start sticking up for himself, and if he didn't want to do something, he shouldn't just go along with it to please everybody else, he should do what he felt was best. So for the first time in a while, other than that time when he refused to go to the greenhouse, and then refusing to help Tommy find Dil in the forrest, he made up his mind, and did the most difficult thing he's done, as by this point, the trip had more or less, been going smoothly, nothing really bad had happened to him yet, like they had the other instances he declined Tommy's adventures. Rather, so in his eyes, this was a first, as he took a deep breath, and did one of the hardest things he ever did.

"Yeah, well, I don't wanna go this time. It's too dark and scary, and nothing you say is gonna get me to change my mind." Snapped Chuckie.

Tommy just stared out of the airduct back at Chuckie, looking puzzled.

"Come on Chuckie, it will be fun!" Said Tommy.

"Uh Tommy, I think Chuckie is trying to tell you something. He doesn't wanna go, and nothing you say or do, is gonna get him to change his mind. And to tell you the honest truth, maybe being a spy is something you wanna do, and I do think it's all interesting and all, but it doesn't interest me nearly as much. Go on Tommy, after all, if we're gonna grow up at the end of this trip, shouldn't we be finding on our own what we wanna do when we're all grown up? Well I think so, and so, Tommy, looks like you're on your own for this one. Good luck, and tell us how it all turns out when you come out the other side." Said Zack.

"Ok, fine, I guess I'll go by myself then." Said Tommy with a sigh, as the purple haired two-year-old toddler slowly turned around, and crawled through the airduct, leaving his friends and brother behind, as he took a step towards his dream profession at this point.

While crawling through the airduct, Tommy spotted a bright green glowing light out of the corner of his eye. Curious, he quietly crawled over to it, only to find there was a dropoff. However, because the green light didn't illuminate the area a ton, Tommy didn't realize it was a droppoff, until it was too late.

Down in a forbidden area of the museum, two guys dressed in spy museum tour guide uniforms, one of which, was holding the green glow stick above his head, were waiting a floor below, just waiting for somebody to come to them that they could use to spy for them. They were about to give up, when Tommy fell through the dropoff, landing in the guy's arms who was carrying the glow stick.

"I got him Mikey, I got him." Said the guy who was holding the glow stick, as he quickly turned it off, while Mikey, using a remote control, replaced the gap in the airduct replica that led down to the forbidden area, with the side of the wall that was originally suppose to be there.

"Come on Bob, let's get out of here." Said Mike, as he and Bob quietly crept out of the forbidden area of the museum to an allie outside the back of the building.

Once outside in broad daylight, Tommy got a better look at these two men who had grabbed him, rescuing him from what could have been a dangerous fall had he hit hard on the floor down below. As he studied these guys, he noticed that something looked familiar to him. Then, it hit him. These guys were the same two people who took him away from his home nearly two years ago. It happened one day not long after his first birthday. His dad was off working on an invention, his mom had gone off to do some shopping, and his grandpa had just finished telling him something about how half price sales hadn't existed in his day, how they had to walk fifteen miles to the store, and pay full price when they got there. Bored, Tommy pretended to go to sleep, tricking his grandpa into thinking it was a good idea, so he turned on his fishing channel, and fell asleep in his chair. Once he was asleep, Tommy noticed the front door had been left wide open, so he crawled outside, only to find a purple ball in the grass. He started playing with it, when two men, who looked exactly like the ones he was staring at at this very moment, had grabbed him up and took him away. Unhappy, he started to cry, but the smaller of the two guys thought he wanted to eat a banana, when all he really wanted was the ball.

Of course, they eventually gave in and gave him the ball, calming him down, but they still took him back to their apartment, where Tommy proceeded to throw their jewls into the toilet and vacuum up some cash. Eventually, after fed up with his behavior, they returned Tommy to his parents, only to have their ransom note blow in their face as they were driving away, causing them to run a red light, get caught by the Police, and facing up to a year and a half in jail. Now, here they were, out of prison, and hitting the streets of Washington D.C. as they were out to collect some serious dough, only to find a child in the process. As they studied the child, they noticed something familiar about him.

"What are you an idiot? We get out of jail, after taking a child, Mr. Thump's kid, and now look at you Bob, taking another child again?" Mike screamed.

Bob put a finger to his lips.

"You want us to get caught? Besides, he looks vaguely familiar, but not totally. The kid's older than the last one, got hair, and he's not crying uncontrollably." Said Bob.

Mike studied him over.

"Well, you're right Bob, he is kind of cute." Said Mike.

"Not only cute, but he's just what we need to distract the people." Said Bob.

"Distract them?" Mike asked.

"Of course distract them. He's gonna spy for us. What's your name kid?" Bob asked, as he knelt down to Tommy's level.

Of course, Tommy had learned a few more words after saying Reptar a few months ago, his own name, wasn't one of them, so he said the only name he knew the grown ups would understand.

"Reptar." Said Tommy.

"Reptar, your family must be pretty lame if they named you after a dinosaur on TV." Said Mike.

"Now come on Bob, he probably just, hasn't learned how to say his real name yet. But wait! Kid, you're gonna be our spy, as we see to saving America, and whenever you see danger, Reptar, is your code word, got it?" Mike asked, thinking the kid would understand and take orders.

Of course, eager to become a spy, little did they know that Tommy was taking in all of this information, he figured they most likely wouldn't get far, and he'd somehow, find his friends in the process, and get away, only soon he'd learn he was very wrong. No matter, he decided to play along for now, as he smiled and nodded.

"Wow, the kid's smart. Ok, let's go." Said Bob, as he picked up Tommy, and they snuck into a backentrance of the spy museum, and quietly snuck off to the office at the gift shop, as it was nearing time for the shop to close down for an hour while the clerk went off to have lunch, giving them the perfect opportunity to sneak in and grab the money from the cash register.

Meanwhile, back at the museum, the adults had noticed the toddlers had all gone missing, so they were all running through the museum looking for them, when Didi, now outside the gift shop, tripped over one of the gadgets that the toddlers had dropped on the floor, nearly tripping over her own two feet, as the itinerary for their trip flew out of her purse, into the air, and was caught by Bob, who was hurtled beneath a clothes rack of t-shirts that were for sale in the gift shop. Upon catching the piece of paper, he looked at over, in awe at the list he saw, as they all seemed like perfect tourist attractions to hit, and obtain the money they made, making them rich.

Before he could show the sheet to Mike, the clerk walked by, noticing Bob and Tommy beneath the shirts.

"May I help you?" The clerk asked.

"Uh yes, I am looking for a shirt for my sweet little boy here." Bob lied, pointing down at Tommy, who was smiling and giggling, as he pointed up at the lady.

"Oh, what an adorable little child. Well, our children's section is this way." Said the clerk, as she led Bob and Tommy to another part of the store.

By this time, Didi had gotten up off of the floor and caught up with the others, as they frantically searched the museum.

At the airduct replica, everyone except for Chuckie decided to crawl through it, not because they were interested in being spies, but just, because they wanted to see what it was like. Kimi was the first to crawl through, followed by Zack, then Bobby, then Jesse, then Lil, then Hazel, then Phil, with Dil at the end of the line. Chuckie noticed a pathway where he could walk around the outside, so he did just that, as Kimi came sliding down the slide at the opposite end of the airduct replica, nearly knocking Chuckie over. Once everybody else had come out, and Dil had toddled over to the group, Chuckie couldn't help but notice that something didn't seem right.

"Something wrong Chuckie?" Phil asked.

"Uh guys, where's Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

"I don't know." Phil replied.

"Yeah! We didn't see him inside the crawly thing." Said Lil.

"Maybe he already came out and is looking for us. We'd better go find him." Said Bobby, as he was about to lead the toddlers through the museum to go look for Tommy.

No sooner were they about to go look for him though, when their parents, Susie and Angelica, as well as Taffy, her band, Peter, Kelly, and Derek, had all caught up to them.

"There you kids are. Bobby, you know better than to be wandering off like that now." Said Martha.

"It was Tommy and Zack's idea to go exploring the museum." Said Bobby.

"You got quite an imagination there Bobby, but that doesn't give you an excuse to be wandering off by yourself." Said Howie G.

Didi looked at the kids, noticing that Tommy was missing.

"Where is Tommy?" Didi asked.

"I don't know." Stu replied.

"Well, he's gone!" Didi cried, as they started looking all over the museum.

Back at the gift shop, while the clerk was helping Bob and Tommy pick out a shirt, Mike used this opportunity to sneak back behind the cash register, and sneak all of the cash out of the drawer. Noticing the clerk was coming back, he quickly stuffed the huge wad of cash into his pocket, ducked under the counter, crawled out quickly, purching himself behind a clothes rack, then made his way to the back of the store, where he found Bob and Tommy looking at the children's section. Mike tapped Bob on the shoulder and whispered in his ear.

"I got it, I got the money. Let's get out of here before we get caught." Whispered Mike into Bob's ear.

Without saying a word, he snatched up Tommy, and the two criminals and their newly found toddler distraction, left the museum in a flash, where they made a mad dash for the outskirts of town, to an abandoned bomb shelter in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, the bomb shelter's metal door was propped open, so they could get inside, where sat a pile of old newspapers, an ice chest, two small cots, and a couple of wooden trunks They had been secretly hiding out here for several months, and they hoped they wouldn't have to hide out here too much longer, as the place got very hot during the summer months.

Back at the spy museum, after being unable to find Tommy after looking for several minutes, they reported him missing to security, who went off looking for him, and agreed to bring him to the Spy Café if he was found. Stu gave the security guard a recent photo of the child, then the gang all went and found some lunch.

"Try the fish tacos Didi, they're out of this world!" Said Martha, as she took another bite of her fish taco.

"And this mulka java is to die for!" Added Betty, as she took another sip of her coffee.

But poor Didi was nearly beside herself. Her oldest child, lost, and so far, nobody had found him. Then, if that wasn't enough to disturb the poor mother, she reached into her purse to see what was next on their schedule, when she found her itinerary missing.

"Has anyone seen my itinerary?" Didi asked.

"No Deed I thought you had it." Stu replied, as he sat across from her, eating a hamburger.

"Well, it's gone too." Cried Didi, as she burst into tears.

"Look at that guys, my mommy is upset, all cuz my brother is gone." Said Dil.

"I miss Tommy too Dil." Said Chuckie.

"Well, never fear, it's Detective Bobby, on the job." Said Bobby with a determined look on his face.

"Wow Bobby, you're gonna get to be a detective after all." Said Kimi with a grin.

"Yep, and if I was able to get Roger back when he was kidnapped, all because mom forgot to renew his tags, and, if I could find my mom's missing rare pair of slippers during spring cleaning, then who says I can't find Tommy?" Said Bobby.

"I bet you could find him." Said Kimi.

"I bet I can too." Said Bobby, as he and the toddlers, dug into their lunches.

No sooner had everybody finished, when the security guard they had spoken to earlier, came into the Spy Café, a sad look on his face.

"I'm sorry to say that we can't find your son anywhere, and believe me, we even looked in all forbidden places in the museum." Said the security guard disappointingly.

Didi, broke down crying.

"Now mam, we know this must be hard for you, but I should ask, do you guys live around here?" The security guard asked.

"Actually, we're from out of town, but here's the number of the hotel where we are staying." Said Stu, as he pulled out his cell phone and brought up the number for the hotel in his contact list.

The security guard wrote down the number on a piece of paper.

"We'll be sure to give you a call if your son should show up. How long will you be staying?" The security guard asked.

"We leave on the morning of August 11th." Stu replied.

The security guard took this down, and went on his way. After everybody had finished lunch, they checked in with Taffy, since at this point, she was the only one left with a copy of the itinerary.

"This is all we had scheduled for today, though I need to get back to the hotel for my band to rehearse. Tomorrow is our trip to the National Zoo." Said Taffy, as she picked up her shopping bags of suvineers, and everybody headed out of Spy Cafe, to the outside of the museum, where the limo was waiting for them to take them back to their hotel.

Meanwhile at the bomb shelter, Bob and Mike were getting hungry, so they pulled out some trout on a stick out of their ice chest to have for lunch.

"Here tiger, try this, it's fishy and delicious!" Said Bob, as he dangled some trout on a stick in front of Tommy.

As Tommy stared at the fish, he thought back to the last time he had some. It was on that camping trip, when he got food poisoning. Not wanting any, for fear of getting sick again, he collapsed to the ground and started crying. Overhearing the child's cries, Bob then realized who they were dealing with.

"Wait a second Mike, that cry, it sounds familiar." Said Bob.

"You're right Bob, it does sound familiar. Don't tell me, we're dealing with Mister Thump's kid again." Said Mike.

"Yep, and now, we know he doesn't like fish or bananas. Oh boy, this is going to be harder than we thought." Said Bob, as he pulled the itinerary out of his pocket and showed it to Mike, who studied it.

"Where did you find this?" Mike asked.

"It flew into my hand back at the gift shop." Bob replied.

"Well, I see whoever threw this, looks like they have a pretty jam packed schedule. Today, they went to the International Spy Museum, tomorrow, it looks like a trip to the National Zoo, then the following day, it looks like a trip to the Museum of Natural History, then, the day after that, a trip to the Jefferson Memorial, and a trip to the Library of Congress, and on the last day, they're going to be attending the Nationals Stadium for that big baseball game everybody keeps talking about." Said Mike, as he read down the list.

"And that's where we're going." Said Bob.

"Not in front of the kid." Mike hissed in a low whisper into Bob's ear.

"Well, no worries Mikey, I have it all worked out. Just trust me." Whispered Bob.

"Well, we got out of the Spy Museum without getting caught, I guess, we can hit these other places on the list as well before hitting the White House next Monday, where we'll kill the President, and take over the country." Mike whispered into Bob's ear, as Bob quietly chuckled evily to himself.

By this time, Tommy had stopped crying, as he grew bored trying to listen into the whispering of Bob and Mike, so he curled up on a pile of old newspapers in the corner of the bomb shelter, and fell asleep, as the sun started to set in the sky.

And this, ends chapter 2. So, will the gang find Tommy? Will Bob and Mike succeed at steeling the money from all of the venues listed on the itinerary? We'll see what happens, as everybody continues to venture to these other tourist attractions, in chapters to come, so please, do stay tuned!


	3. The Zoo, and a Baby Orangatan?

Author's Note: I'm sorry if this story isn't getting updated more quickly. I was busy last night, then got home, ate dinner, got all caught up on emails and such, and by that time, I was exhausted, so watched Rugrats on The 90's are All That and went to bed. I planned to write this morning, only when I awoke today, I didn't feel good, and seriously thought I was coming down with a cold, as my nose was stuffy and there was a tickle in the back of my nose. So I fell back to sleep for a while, not waking up until this afternoon, and while my throat is slightly soar, I'm feeling better, and have more or less, mapped out the next chapter in my head, and so, without further adue, let's get on, with chapter 3 of this story!

Chapter 3, The Zoo, and a Baby Orangatan?

Tommy POV

I fell asleep for a while on the pile of newspapers that were in the corner of the place where I was hiding out with this Bob and Mike person. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep forever, as it started to grow uncomfortable, so I waked up, and founded the potty, which was in another corner. Sadly though, I guess it couldn't flush, as it smelled, and was full of poop, but I didn't care. I really had to go, so I went. Then, realizing how uncomfortable I was, I made my way over to the huge metal door, as I tried to pry it open, but it was too heavy. I was about to pull out my trusty screwdriver from my pocket, and see if it could help me escape, when Bob and Mike waked up on their beds across the way.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Mike snapped, as he picked me up from over at the door.

"Now you know better than to be trying to sneak out late at night. Don't you know how dangerous that is?" Mike snapped, as he stomped around the room, and slammed me down hard on my pile of newspapers.

I let out a cry of pain, as it really hurt.

"Shut up! Shut up kid!" Mike screamed.

I shut my mouth immediately and just sat there, unsure of what to do at this point.

"Seriously Mikey, must you be so mean to the kid?" Bob asked, now standing next to Mike, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"This kid tried to escape." Said Mike.

"In that case, bad baby. Bad! Bad! Bad!" Bob shouted.

"You stay on your newspapers until morning, understand?" Mike scolded.

I slowly nodded, hoping they could see me with what little moonlight was streaming in through the windows in our tiny place.

"Good, we'll see you in the morning. Goodnight." Mike hissed, as he and Bob went back to bed.

I sadly, could never get comfortable to go back to sleep, so I just sat there, staring out the window next to my newspaper pile, until the sun waked up.

End of Tommy POV

Bobby POV

After we all returned from the Spy Museum, the rest of the day and evening was pretty quiet, as we were all saddened by the loss of our two-year-old purple haired companion and good friend, Tommy. I was only hoping we could find him over the course of the next week, but it was hard to think of anything. All I could think about were the few memories I had with Tommy. How when we first met, I seriously thought he was a bad person because he was in a cranky mood, as a result of getting his first splinter, wasp sting, and a terrible cold around the time we met, not to mention, dealing with the loss of his friend Chuckie, who was off at some trial preschool program the same week I moved to town. And then there was my brother, who told me about the terrible two's, and how they make a person mean, and to avoid all two-year-olds at all cost. I finally got to know Tommy near the end of a welcome to the neighborhood party his parents had thrown for me and my family, and while he didn't feel much up to talking, we discovered that we had a lot in common, just by what little talking we did, and the story I told him, about how Reptar and Captain Squash helped one another, and a week later, when we reunited at the park, after he was over his cold, we became really good friends. Over the course of the last year, we had gotten to know one another quite well. He helped me to become a better roommate with Derek, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Chanukah together, we were together when we got our first library cards, he helped me find Roger, along with Fifi and Roger's first batch of puppies when they escaped at Easter, and most importantly, he helped me overcome my fear of thunder storms and helped me find a cure after I got sprayed by a skunk, when we went together on a camping trip just a hair under a month ago before going on this trip. And now, Tommy was gone, and it was up to me, detective Bobby, to get him back.

Eventually, nighttime came, most of us weren't very hungry, but I at least had one slice of leftover pepperoni pizza, if for no other reason, to make my mom and dad happy, as they didn't wish to see me not eat, then I crawled into bed, in hopes that the next day at the National Zoo, we'd either find Tommy, or at least, nobody else would go missing.

End of Bobby POV

August 7, 2014…

The next day, everyone awoke at the hotel, went down for breakfast, where they didn't eat much, and got into the lemozine, to head off to the National Zoo. While in the limo on the way to the zoo, Bobby burst into song.

 _Peter's taking us to the zoo this morning, zoo this morning, zoo this morning._

 _Peter's taking us to the zoo this morning, and we can, stay all day._

Everybody except Chuckie, joined in along with Bobby at this point.

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _So are you, you, you._

 _We'll come too, too, too._

 _Let's go to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

Now Zack sang a verse solo.

 _We'll see all the rhynos, chomp, chomp, chomping._

 _Showing off their big horns and stomp, stomp, stomping._

 _We'll watch those rhynos, chomp, chomp, chomping, cuz we can, stay all day._

Everybody except for Chuckie, came in with the chorus.

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _You come too, too, too._

 _Me and you, you, you._

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

Now Jesse sang a verse solo.

 _We'll see all the birds as they hover, hover, hover._

 _Looking like Dectar as they hover, hover hover._

 _Don't get too close to that hover, hover, hover, or we wohn't, stay all day._

Everyone except Chuckie chimed in at this point.

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _You come too, too, too._

 _Me and you, you, you._

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

Everybody at this point stopped, as they stared at Chuckie, noticing he wasn't singing along.

"Why aren't you singing Chuckie?" Kimi asked.

"Who wants to sing at a time like this?" Chuckie asked.

"Come on Chuckie, remember what Timon told us when we were all at the beach that time, and Tommy was acting meaner than Angelica, thanks to being possessed by that shadow person? Sometimes you just need to burst into song, as it helps you get through troubled times." Said Bobby.

Chuckie took a deep breath and sighed.

"Oh all right, I'll sing a verse." Chuckie said reluctantly, as he took a breath and started to sing.

 _We'll see those giraffes with their long necks stretching._

 _Eating off of trees with their long necks stretching._

 _We'll never hear a sound from their long necks stretching, but we can, stay all day._

"That a boy Chuckie, now doesn't that feel good?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." Chuckie replied, a hint of sadness in his voice, as he knew deep down, Tommy would really enjoy this song.

This time, they all sang the chorus again, and Chuckie joined in with Bobby and the other toddlers.

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _You come too, too, too._

 _Me and you, you, you._

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

Finally, it was time for the last verse, which Susie and Dil sang together.

 _Lions and tigers, sleeping so peaceful._

 _Laying around as they look so peaceful._

 _But when meal time comes, they're not so peaceful, so stay out, of their way._

As the limo turned into the parking lot of the zoo, everybody sang the chorus, one last time.

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _You come too, too, too._

 _Me and you, you, you._

 _We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

No sooner had they finished singing, when the limo stopped to let Taffy and her band, Peter, and the rest of the gang and their families off.

"We're here kids, at the National Zoo." Said Kira, as she got out everybody's strollers, helped get them all strapped in, and everybody made their way from the limo up to the gates, where they checked in and saw to meeting up with their tour guide.

No sooner had they approached the gates and gift shop, when they ran into Hazel, who was at the zoo with her parents. Everybody knew instantly who it was, when Lil turned to her brother next to her in their stroller, and she saw that goofy dreamy look on his face.

"Morning Hazel." Said Bobby, as she came into view.

"Morning Bobby, how are you all doing?" Hazel asked.

"We're all right, still no sign of Tommy though." Chuckie said disappointingly.

"Well not to worry Chuckie, as your detective, I'm going to find him, but I can't do it alone. Everyone who's in favor of finding Tommy, please raise your hands." Said Bobby.

Everybody except for Angelica, raised their hands in the air.

"You don't wanna find Tommy Angelica?" Kimi asked.

"No, I don't wish to find that dumb baby, I wanna become President." Said Angelica.

"Angelica, give it up already, you're never gonna become president." Said Susie.

"Oh we'll just see about that Susie." Snapped Angelica.

"Well you're on your own then, as I'm gonna help Bobby look for Tommy." Said Susie, as she went up next to Bobby, and took his hand.

"Really? Thank you!" Said Bobby.

"Tommy was the first baby out of all of you who I met, as he helped me find my room when I moved into my new house. I'm not giving up on him yet. And seeing that you Bobby, are my friend, next-door neighbor, and another good friend of Tommy's, I feel I should help you." Said Susie.

"Ok good. However, in order to find Tommy, we're all gonna have to split up at each place we visit, when I see that our families are too wrapped up in the tours, not paying attention to us anymore. However, since Peter is too wrapped up in smooching with my sister, thus, being too busy to look after us, if we're going to split up, we should use the baby buddy system, to ensure none of us get lost." Explained Bobby.

"Oh no, not the baby buddy system. What is it anyway?" Chuckie asked.

"That's where we all split off in pairs." Bobby replied.

"Pears? Sorry Bobby, me and Phillip don't gots any pears." Said Lil.

"Uh, no, and since we're now potty trained, we don't wear diapies no more, so it's harder for us to keep a lot of fruit or other food around." Said Phil.

"Not that kind of pear, the other kind. You know, going in two's." Said Bobby.

"Oh, like how we went on the ark. Me and Lil went together cuz we're twins." Said Phil.

"Yeah, and I went with Tommy, cuz we're two bestest friends." Said Chuckie, as a tear went down his cheek.

"Don't worry Chuckie, I'll go with you." Said Kimi with a smile, as she came up next to her brother, and put a hand on his shoulder, as she and Chuckie were walking, rather than riding in strollers.

"Thanks Kimi." Said Chuckie.

"Nuh uh, nope, I've already decided who's going with who. If we're all suppose to be grown up by the end of the week, we can't cling on to our siblings forever. Besides, I already can tell that Phil and Hazel wanna be together." Said Bobby, as he pointed at Phil and Hazel, who were still looking at each other, with goofy love expressions on their faces.

"Wow, thanks Bobby." Said Phil.

"Yeah! You're the greatest!" Hazel added.

"But who's gonna go with me?" Lil asked.

"I'll go with you." Jesse replied.

"Fine, but just, don't touch me, ok?" Lil hissed.

"Fine, I won't." Jesse replied, a bit disappointed, as he really liked Lil, but sadly, Lil didn't like him in that special way like Hazel liked Phil or even Rosie liked Tommy.

"I wanna go with Kimi. After all, if I could lead everybody through Cynthia Land to get Tommy a get well present and ride the roller coaster of doom that time when he couldn't come with us, because he had that hand, foot, and mmouth disease, or whatever it's called, who says I wouldn't be good with helping to find Tommy, and keeping watch over Kimi?" Zack asked.

"Oh ok, just don't do anything to hurt my sister." Chuckie said.

"I promise Chuckie, nothing bad will happen to her." Zack replied.

Chuckie nodded at Zack with a smile.

"And so, that leaves Dil to go with Chuckie." Said Bobby.

"You mean I have to watch Dil? I knew this was a bad idea." Said Chuckie.

"Come on Chuckie, besides, you and Dil share something in common." Said Bobby.

"What?" Chuckie asked.

"Uh, we both miss Tommy terribly, and both have red hair. Sometimes, I think you look more like my big brother than Tommy does, hair wise anyway." Said Dil.

"Oh ok, just don't drool all over my hand ok?" Chuckie asked.

"I haven't drooled all over your hand in several months. I'm a big baby now, I don't do that no more." Said Dil.

"So it's settled then. Until Tommy is found, those will be your groups. When I give the signal, we'll split up, and go all over wherever we're venturing that day to look for him. Got it?" Bobby asked.

"Got it." Everyone else replied in unison, just as the tour guide approached all of the parents.

"Good morning, my name is Vicky, and I'm gonna be your guide today, as we explore the National Zoo, and look at all of the animals." Said Vicky, an elderly looking woman, who appeared to be around Lou or Lulu's age, wearing a blue tour guide uniform, as she led all of the families, Hazel's family included, out of the gift shop, and into the main zoo area, where she took them around, and showed them several different animals.

While all of this was going on, in another part of Washington D.C. at a costume shop, Bob, Mike and Tommy, were looking for the perfect disguise to hide Tommy in.

"I found it! We'll dress up Baby Thump, Reptar, whatever he wants to be called, as an orangutan." Said Bob, as he held up an orangutan costume, that was Tommy's size.

"Come on Bob, it will never work." Said Mike.

"Oh sure it will, you'll see." Said Bob, as he pinned down Tommy, who struggled to get away, but failed to do so, as Bob got the costume put on to Tommy over his clothes.

The body was one piece, that buttoned up in the back, while the mask covered the head, was a separate piece. It fit perfectly, as Tommy's nostrels and eyes fit perfectly, matching up with the eye and nose wholes in the face mask.

"Perfect!" Said Bob with a smile, as he took a pocket knife, and stripped off the metal alarm piece, so they wouldn't get caught shoplifting.

"Now kid, while wearing this costume, you must keep quiet, not a single word or sound, unless you're in real danger, got it?" Mike said, sternly.

Tommy nodded, and the three of them left the costume shop, and headed off for the zoo.

By the time they got there, nobody was at the gate of the zoo, as everybody was off on tours being provided by the zoo itself, or looking at the animals by themselves, giving Bob, Mike, and baby orangutan Tommy, a way to easily sneak in. Once inside the zoo, Bob turned to Mike.

"Now what?" Bob whispered into Mike's ear.

"We let the kid loose, sneak off into the gift shop and offices, report there's a baby orangutan on the loose, summoning everybody to go off looking for him, we sneak the money out of the safes, and make a run for it." Whispered Mike into Bob's ear.

"Ok." Said Bob, as he placed Tommy in his orangutan costume on the ground.

"Have fun little fellow." Said Bob teasingly.

"Hope you find your orangutan mommy and daddy now." Added Mike teasingly, as they ran off, leaving Tommy in his costume, to roam the zoo all by himself, which is exactly what he did.

In another part of the zoo, Peter and Kelly sat down on a bench beneath a tree to rest, and spend some time alone together, while in another part of the zoo, Taffy and her band mates were talking with one of the managers about their upcoming tour and kickoff concert, and handing out flyers to help promote it. In another part of the view, all of the adults, Derek, and Angelica were eyeing a baboon exhibit in awe, completely forgetting about Bobby, Susie, and the toddlers, telling Bobby this was the perfect chance for everyone to escape with their buddies, split up, and start looking for Tommy. Quietly, everybody who was in strollers, got out of them, grabbed their buddy's hand, and before they knew it, everybody was running in every which direction around the zoo, looking for Tommy.

Sadly, nobody had much luck finding him, but something interesting happened when Chuckie and Dil approached the elephants, and when Dil went to get a closer look, his shirt got caught on the wiring of the fence.

"Help! I'm stuck!" Dil cried.

"Don't worry Dil, I'm coming." Cried Chuckie, as he ran to help get Dil unstuck, just as his shoelace got caught on a tree route on the ground, as he ran by a tree that was near the fence.

"Uh oh, now I'm stuck. Help!" Chuckie screamed.

Tommy, unknown by anybody that it was him, as he was still dressed as an orangutan, overheard Dil and Chuckie's screams for help, so ran over and quietly helped them get unstuck.

"Oh, thank you…" Chuckie started to say, when he turned around, and saw who, or what, had helped him.

"AAAHHH!" Chuckie screamed.

"What is it Chuckie?" Dil asked, as he tottled next to Chuckie, and saw what Chuckie was staring at.

"Looks like a monkey with red hair." Said Dil.

"But it's, little!" Chuckie replied.

"Hmmm, must be a baby." Said Dil.

"But how would he have gotten out here?" Chuckie asked.

"Hmmm, he must be loose, we've gots to find the others and have them help us get this redheaded monkey back to where he belongs." Said Dil.

"Well, ok then." Said Chuckie with a sigh, as he and Dil took the monkey's hands, surprised at how friendly he was, as they went off looking for the others.

The first pair they found was Jesse and Lil over by the giraffes. Jesse kept trying to tickle Lil, but she kept screaming and trying to squirm away.

"Stop it Jesse, just, stop it!" Lil cried.

"No, it's fun!" Jesse said in between giggles.

"Guys, we've gots an even biggerer problem now." Said Chuckie, as he came up and tapped Jesse on the shoulder, who snapped out of his giggle fit and turned around, to see Chuckie and Dil on either side of a baby orangutan.

"What do you want us to do?" Jesse asked.

"Help us!" Chuckie begged.

"Ok, we'll help, just as long as Jesse stops trying to tickle me." Lil hissed.

"I'll stop tickling you." Jesse replied, as the four toddlers and monkey headed off to another part of the zoo where they found Zack and Kimi by the lions and tigers.

Chuckie gasp at the sight.

"Come on Zack and Kimi, let's get out of here and find this monkey's home." Said Chuckie nervously.

"It's ok, the lions can't hurt us, and that's not a monkey, it's an orangutan. Me and Kimi overheardid a tour guide talking about them when we were wandering through the zoo looking for Tommy, who, we haven't found…" Zack started to explain, before Chuckie cut him off.

"You know where this orangutan came from?" Chuckie asked.

"Sure do Chuckie, come on!" Kimi said excitedly, as the six of them and the orangutan, all headed off for the orangutan house, running into Hazel and Phil on the way, who were sitting in a grassy patch of grass near one of the rest stops, enjoying a snack of bugs and talking, completely forgetting about what they were suppose to be doing, until Lil snapped her brother out of it, grabbing his hand, Hazel tagging close behind them, as everybody ran to the orangutan house, where they found Bobby and Susie.

"What are you guys doing here?" Susie asked, upon seeing all of the toddlers and the orangutan.

"Awe, how cute!" Susie exclaimed, upon seeing the redheaded monkey.

"It's a, oran, oran, uh…" Kimi started to say, before Zack cut her off, correcting her.

"An orangutan, who's losted." Said Zack.

"Awe, he's so cute! But it looks like he's lost. Poor little thing." Said Susie.

"Well, I'm gonna see that this baby orangutan finds his way home." Said Bobby.

All of this time, poor Tommy was finding it hard to keep quiet, he didn't realize he could do such a good job of tricking his friends and brother, but he would then remember that while in this costume, he had to keep quiet, so he kept his word and played along, waiting for just the right moment to reveal his identity.

No sooner were Bobby and Susie looking for a way to get the orangutan into the house, which was a sheet of glass in front of them, with two adult orangatans inside the cage, when somebody from the zoo, along with everybody's parents, came up behind the kids.

"There you are!" Didi cried, as she picked up Dil, the other parents, picking up their kids and giving them hugs, thankful they were safe.

"And here's that baby orangutan that was recently reported missing. Come on little fellow, let's get you back inside where you belong." Said the zoo security guard, as she picked up the orangutan, who was really Tommy inside a costume, and placed him inside of the orangutan house, laid out some fresh fruit for them to eat, and left the three orangatans to go about their business, now that they were all safe and sound inside their little habitat.

Meanwhile, Bob and Mike had reported the baby orangutan loose, causing the store clerk at the gift shop and the zoo manager to disappear to report this to security, at which time, they each snuck in and grabbed at wods of cash, stuffing their pants pockets, before making a break for the exit of the zoo, making sure not to get caught. Once they had run several miles from the area, they stopped and turned to one another.

"So?" Mike asked.

"So what?" Bob asked.

"Where's the kid?" Mike asked in a loud tone of voice.

Bob put a finger up to his lips, hushing him.

"We'll sneak back in tonight after closing time, sneak off to the orangutan house, and get the kid back." Bob whispered into Mike's ear, as they ran back to their bomb shelter on the outskirts of town, and hid the cash in the shoebox they were keeping beneath Mike's bed, where they were stashing all of their money, and taking another look at that itinerary that Bob had grabbed the previous day at the Spy Museum.

"So where to tomorrow?" Bob asked.

"The Museum of Natural History." Mike replied, looking up from the piece of paper containing the itinerary on it in his hand.

Back at the zoo inside of the orangutan house, Tommy now realized, he was quite hungry, and in some serious trouble. Eyeing the fruit that the zoo keepers had set down for the orangatans, Tommy went to eat some, when he noticed, that while he could see out of the eye wholes of the mask, and breethe through the nose piece, there was no opening for his mouth, causing him to have to take his mask off, which he didn't mind doing, as he was starting to get hot, to sit down and eat the fruit. He ate every last piece, as he was starving, after hardly having anything to eat since breakfast the previous day, but it then hit him, the two adult real orangatans who were with him inside of the house were frightened by his appearance, so they scurried away to the highest branch of the trees that made up the corners of the habitat house where they lived.

While Tommy continued to dine on the fruit, several tourests walked by the outside of the glass, staring in at what appeared to be a half human, half orangutan in their eyes, eating the fruit. Frightened by this sight, several tourests ran off, screaming!

"Weir orangutan! Weir orangutan!" Screamed several people, as they ran off away from the orangatans, either to leave the zoo, or to look elsewhere at a sight that was less frightening.

Realizing he was scaring people away, Tommy knew at that instant, he needed to find a way out of the habitat, but sadly, it was a solid piece of glass blocking him from the outside, and there was no doorknob on the inside of the door where the zoo keepers came in, for fear that the real orangatans would try to let themselves out, since they were closely related to humans, and could work doorknobs if given the chance. Then, realizing he had his screwdriver on him, Tommy would find a way to climb out and let himself out, except he now ran into another dilemma. It was stored in his shorts pocket beneath his orangutan costume, and while he could get the mask off by himself, he couldn't get the body part off by himself, because it was a one piece suit, that buttoned in the back, and sadly, the almost three-year-old hadn't exactly figured out how to unbutton clothing, nor try to get at them from behind himself. Frustrated, Tommy started banging on the glass.

"Reptar!" Tommy shouted, as he banged on the inside of the glass of the orangutan habitat, but after scaring everybody away, nobody heard him, nobody, except for one person.

A short distance away, once everyone was found, the Pickles, Devilles, Finsters, Barrows, Wehrenbergs, Carmichaels, Generics, Peter, and Taffy and her band, as well as Hazel and her parents, all settled down in the grass to have a picnic lunch of some sandwiches they had bought at a consession stand at the zoo. While eating, Chuckie overheard Tommy's cry from the orangutan habitat.

"Reptar!" He heard Tommy cry from the habitat.

"Guys, I just heard Tommy's voice." Chuckie turned and said to the others.

"Nah, you're just making things up." Said Phil.

"No really guys, I heard him. Tommy!" Chuckie called.

Back at the orangutan habitat, Tommy overheard Chuckie call his name, but worried if he scared those tourests away by taking off his mask, revealing only his face, making him appear as a half human half orangutan, he knew he'd really scare Chuckie, so he quickly put his mask back on, just as Chuckie and the other toddlers, ran out of the grass back to the orangutan habitat when the adults weren't looking, to see if Chuckie was right. But sadly, when they got there, all they saw was the baby orangutan, staring back at them from the other side of the glass.

"I told you you were hearing things." Said Phil.

"Yeah." Lil added.

"I seriously thought I heard Tommy's voice, but maybe, it was just the wind." Said Chuckie, before he burst into tears, the other toddlers, all collapsing to the ground, as they too burst into tears.

Tommy really felt bad, and if only he could break free of his costume and reveal his identity, but by this time, it would have been too late, as the picnicking parents all overheard their crying kids in the distance, as they gathered up their trash, threw it away, and ran to gather up their crying children.

"Looks like the kids are getting hot and cranky from this day of excitement." Said Betty, as she gathered up Phil and Lil, who were still crying, as she tried to comfort them.

"Maybe we should head back to the hotel, besides, we need to check and see if anybody has called our room with any news about Tommy." Said Didi, as she picked up Dil, and the crying toddlers were all led away in the arms of their parents, as everybody went back out of the zoo to the parking lot, Kira, stopping off at the gift shop on the way to pick up some postcards, while Peter called for the lemozine to come back and take them back to their hotel.

Once the limoazine arrived, everybody got in, and Bobby, burst into another song, as he tried to calm his friends down.

 _Well we stayed all day and we didn't find Tommy._

 _Looked all over the zoo but we didn't find Tommy._

 _A baby orangutan but no sign of Tommy, and yes we, stayed all day._

 _We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _You came too, too, too._

 _We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo._

 _Yep the zoo, zoo, zoo._

By the time Bobby finished singing his song, the other toddlers, exhausted from their running around, had fallen asleep in the lemozine, as it pulled up in front of the hotel, where the parents quietly got out, and carried their sleeping kids up to their rooms, where they continued to take a nap, and the bulk of the adults, joined in, as everybody was pretty exhausted at this point. And poor Didi, on top of being exhausted, grew even more frustrated, as she checked the messages on the phone for their room, to find that no messages had been left by the police, with regards to the whereabouts of where Tommy was.

Back at the zoo, poor Tommy grew exhausted, so he found a pile of grass, where he curled up and took a nap, until it started to get dark outside, and he awoke inside the orangutan habitat, having to go potty really badly, but had no way of getting his costume off, so the poor child, peed in his pants, and started to cry. At this point, the zoo had closed for the night, and Bob and Mike, now dressed in black masks and black suits, made their way back to the zoo, hoping to rescue Tommy, or in their eyes, Baby Thump slash Reptar, before hitting the Natural Museum of History the following day. Overhearing Tommy's cries from the orangutan habitat, they snuck around to that part of the zoo, on the outskirts of the area, as they looked for a way inside of the habitat. When nobody was looking, Mike hoisted Bob up on his shoulders, as he dangled down into the top of the orangutan habitat, pulled a rope out of his pocket, and dangled it down in Tommy's face.

"Here kid, wanna play tug of war?" Bob asked, trying to get the child's attention.

Tommy eyed the rope, which had a Reptar yoyo on the end of it, which he grabbed, no sooner was he playing with the yoyo, when Bob was pulled back by Mike, causing Tommy to be lifted from the ground, leaving his orangutan mask behind, as well as the orangutan habitat. They were about to make it, when they were almost out, Tommy's costume got caught on one of the vines near the top of the fence that blocked the habitat off from the outside world.

Unsure of what else to do, Bob quickly took a pocket knife out of his pocket, cut Tommy out of the orangutan costume, causing it to rip apart into shreds and fall back down into the habitat, as they quickly snatched up Tommy, who at least still had his regular clothes on, jumped down from the top of the habitat wall down to the outskirts of the zoo, and the two criminals and their kidnapped child, made a run for it before anybody could catch them, till they got to their bomb shelter, where Bob and Mike collapsed down on their cots, and Tommy went over to his uncomfortable pile of newspapers, where he once again, sat there all night, staring out the window, eager to see what would happen the following day.

Back at the hotel, after everybody had had a long afternoon nap, they got up and went to eat dinner at a nearby Tye restaurant, that was recommended to them by Hazel's parents, and they even agreed to treat everybody to dinner, after hearing about what they were all going through this week, with the loss of Tommy. While at the restaurant, Betty and Didi, who were sitting together, struck up a conversation.

"You ok Deed?" Betty asked, noticing her friend looking quite sad, as she sat there, twirling her fork around in her food, hardly eating a bite.

"Honestly Betty, what is it with going through a major chrisis with Tommy, every year around his Birthday?" Didi asked.

"Come on Deed, you don't go through this every year." Betty replied.

"Yes I do. Remember last year? Stu and I were temporarily divorced while I was taking college courses, so Tommy, who was still under the influence of The Gray Plague, as we waited for a vaccine, Dil, and I were living in an apartment on campus, and I was so worried each and every day that my poor son wouldn't make it. Then, his second birthday came. We went to the drive in, and after the movie, I saw the text proclaiming that there was a vaccine, so I rushed Tommy to the hospital, only to have a flat tire on the way, which Stu very nicely fixed, and we made it there. Tommy was cured, Stu and I made up, ending our mini divorce, and other than Tommy having a bad year health wise, as a result of the Gray Plague weakening his immune system, or at least that's what we learned last week at his checkup from Doctor Shackter anyway, he's alive, and we made it this far. And now, his third birthday is just a few days away, and my little boy is not with us. Who knows if my child is even still alive!" Didi said, before she burst into tears.

"Awe come on Deed, I wouldn't give up hope yet, I'm sure we'll find Tommy before we leave on Sunday, and you'll see him turn three-years-old." Said Betty.

"Well, I've already decided, if Tommy isn't back in our possession when it's time for the rest of you to head back home, and for Taffy to head off to her next place on her tour, you all can leave me behind, and leave me with enough money to get two plane tickets back, as I'm not coming home until I find my son." Didi protested.

"Speaking of Taffy and touring, where are we heading tomorrow?" Betty asked, attempting to change the subject.

Overhearing Betty's question, Taffy, who was seated further down the table, spoke up.

"Tomorrow, we're heading to the Museum of Natural History." Taffy replied.

" _I hope we can get through this trip without the kids wandering off._ " Didi thought to herself, as she decided to eat a little bit of her dinner, just to not look rude in front of Hazel's family, who very nicely treated them to this meal, even though she wasn't really all that hungry.

And this, ends chapter 3. So, what will happen the following day at the Museum of Natural History? You'll have to wait until chapter 4, to find out!

Author's Note: The song that Bobby and the other toddlers sang on the way to and from the zoo was somewhat of a parody of a song from another TV show I watched when I was really little, way before I ever watched Rugrats, called Sharon, Lois, and Bram's Elephant Show, and just like the parody, the original song was about going to the zoo, I only changed some of the wording a bit, and the part about Dectar in the verse that Jesse sang about the birds, was obviously, not in the original song.


	4. The Search for the Skeleton's Missing Ha

Author's Note: I'm sorry no chapters didn't get posted yesterday. I awoke yesterday morning with a terrible cold, and felt just absolutely miserable yesterday! Spent most of the day in bed, and attended a monthly event in my area with my folks called Third Thursday, and ate dinner with my nephew, but otherwise, I felt miserable and more or less, spent the day in bed. Other than having no appetite this morning, I feel somewhat better, or at least up to writing anyway, so, let's have the next chapter!

Chapter 4, The Search for the Skeleton's Missing Hand

August 8, 2014…

The next morning, everybody was headed off to the Museum of Natural History. As for the Rugrats and their families, everyone was up early, ate breakfast, and was waiting outside just in time for the lemozine to pick everyone up and take them to the Museum of Natural History. Once they got there, they checked in at the ticket desk. Peter, who was paying for this trip, along with Taffy and her band, went up to the front of the line of their group and saw to their tickets.

"May I help you?" Said a woman behind the counter with dark hair and red rimmed glasses.

"Yes, I'm King Peter Albany of the Confederacy, and to my right is Taffy, the lead singer of Taffy and the Salt Waters." Said Peter.

"Oh yes, Taffy, the band that's beginning their tour here this weekend. We've been expecting you." Said the woman, as she turned towards Taffy.

"Good morning." Taffy replied, as she shook the woman's hand, and she came out from around the corner, to see who else had all shown up.

"I see you all have several young children here with you this morning. You guys are not by chance, here for this morning's special program and scavender hunt that's taking place in our forensics lab are you?" The woman asked.

"Actually, we are." Didi replied from farther back in the line.

"Once I hand out everybody's tickets, please head upstairs to room 2A, it's across from the elevators on your left, you can't miss it, as it's quite full of noisy chatter, as we're expecting a ton of kids attending today." Said the woman, as she went around and put buttons on to everybody's shirts, to show that they had checked in as touring members of the museum.

"Have a wonderful time!" Said the lady, as she then motioned to Taffy.

"Taffy, I believe you'll be wanting to meet with some of the museum staff, to hand out flyers or something?" The woman asked.

"Oh, yes mam." Taffy replied.

"Please, right this way." Said the dark haired woman, as she jestured to Taffy to follow her, and they went off to another part of the museum.

The Rugrats and their families, along with Bobby and his family had gone off at this point and found the elevator, where they headed up to the second floor, and Celeste was feeling around for any Braille signs that would lead them to room 2A. Then, she found it!

"Here we are everybody, the forensics lab, room 2A." Said Celeste, as she opened the door.

A tall woman with bright red hair wearing a green tour guide's uniform approached her.

"May I help you?" The woman asked.

"Oh, yes, my name is Celeste Wehrenberg, and this is my nephew Zack, and our other friends. We're here for the forensics lab program and scavender hunt." Said Celeste.

"Oh yes, we've been expecting you. My name is Cyndi, please, come on in and take a seat at the long tables around the room." Said Cyndi, as she opened the door wider and all of the families, strollers with the toddlers, and everyone came into the room, where they gathered at several tables, covered in various bones from the human body, along with other families and their kids, gathered there for this special event.

Once everybody had taken their seats and was quiet, Cyndi clapped her hands, cleared her throat, and began.

"Good morning boys and girls, my name is Cyndi and welcome to the forensics lab at the Museum of Natural History. This morning, we have a very special treat for you." Said Cyndi.

She then went on to talk about the different bones, and asked for a volunteer to help her come demonstrate and teach the lesson. Bobby raised his hand.

"And what's your name?" Cyndi asked.

"Bobby Generic." Bobby replied, as he got out of his seat and went up and joined Cyndi where she was standing, along with several bones in front of her.

"Well Bobby, it's great to have you joining us this morning. Now Bobby, can you tell the difference between which skull is a boy's skull and which one is a girl?" Asked Cyndi, as she placed 2 skeleton skulls in front of Bobby.

Bobby looked them over for a minute before responding.

"No." Bobby replied.

"Ah, now I'd like you to feel the back of each skull. Notice how one of them has a small bump near the base of the back of the skull and the other one doesn't?" Cyndi asked.

Bobby felt the skulls and took note of this bump. Then he nodded, as he held up the skull with the bump on the back, which he held up in his left hand.

"The skull you have in your left hand, belonged to a male, while the one that's still on the table in front of your right hand, is a female." Said Cyndi.

Everybody in the room felt the back of their own heads, to see if they could find the bump.

"Yeah I feel the bump on the back of my head too! Fascinating!" Howard D replied.

"Yep, no bump here." Said Betty.

Then, Bobby went on to pick up some other bones, which were human leg bones.

"Why does this one have a bump on it?" Bobby asked, as he held up a leg bone.

"Ah, good question Bobby. This person broke their leg while they were alive, and the bump you feel here, is a calcium deposit." Explained Cyndi.

"My friend Tommy broke his leg, and was alive when it healed. Do you think he might have bumps like that?" Bobby asked.

"Yes, he probably does." Cyndi replied.

Then, Bobby picked up another leg bone, only this one looked to have a slight bend and limp.

"What's wrong with this one?" Bobby asked.

"Well, did your friend wear a cast when his leg was broken?" Cyndi asked.

"Yes, twice because he tried to speed up the process, only making the break worse." Bobby replied.

"Well, this is what would have happened if your friend's leg hadn't been set properly back in its place, and healed the wrong way. See how there's a bend? That's because the bone healed out of place." Cyndi explained.

Over at the table, the other toddlers had long since lost interest in what Bobby was doing, as they all turned to one another.

"So when can we sneak off and go looking for Tommy?" Chuckie whispered into Dil's ear.

"I don't know." Dil whispered back.

Back at the front of the room, Bobby picked up two leg bones that appeared to be split in half, but they were hollow on the inside.

"What's wrong with this one?" Bobby asked.

"Good question Bobby. This person's bone broke after they died. See how it's hollow on the inside? That's because unlike the leg that broke while the person was alive, this one broke after the person died, causing it to be hollow on the inside because the body is no longer producing calcium or nutrients, to help the bone heal." Explained Cyndi.

Meanwhile, back at the lobby of the museum, Bob, Mike and Tommy had arrived before anyone else did, but they were hiding behind a curtin with a display of ancient Native American symbols on it. Once the dark haired receptionist had left to go with Taffy around the museum to hand out flyers and promote her tour, Mike nudged Bob in the ribs.

"Now's our chance! Go in there!" Whispered Mike into Bob's ear.

"No Mike, you go in, and hurry! You want us to get caught?" Bob asked.

By this point, nobody was paying attention to Tommy anymore, and he was starting to get bored. He quietly snuck out from behind the curtins, and went off to explore the museum. Unnoticed that Tommy was gone, Bob and Mike snuck out from behind the curtins, made their way behind the desk where the dark haired receptionist had disappeared from, and started looking around for a safe. Then, Mike spotted it in a deserted room in the back, where he quietly snuck in, used a fake key he had in his pocket, as he and Bob had been collecting several keys from several lock smiths over the last six months, proclaiming they were lock smiths from around the country, and tried several keys until he found one that fit the lock. Using it, he opened the safe, grabbed a huge pile of cash, and stuffed the money into his pockets. Once he was satisfied, he turned around to find Bob behind him, but Tommy, completely out of sight.

"Where's the kid Bob?" Mike asked.

"I don't know I thought you were watching him." Bob replied.

"No, I thought you were watching him." Mike replied.

"Well we'd better find him, before we get caught. Come on." Bob yelled, as he turned to run out of the office, only to see the lady with dark hair back at her desk.

Mike quickly closed the safe and turned to find that lady was in her office. Nervous, the two criminals quietly snuck out of her office. Hearing a noise, the lady looked up from her desk to see what she had heard, but by the time she looked up, Bob and Mike were gone.

In another part of the museum, Tommy had explored several rooms, one with several indian exhibits, and now, he was exploring a room that had pictures and artifacts that were dug up from different wars that took place in the United States, when Bob and Mike finally caught up to him.

"There he is, grab him!" Bob called out to Mike.

"Nuh uh, you grab him Bob." Mike argued.

"No you! Before he gets away!" Bob hissed, but Tommy was running out of the room before either of them could catch him.

Spotting Tommy running out of the corner of his eye, the two criminals started running through the museum chasing after the purple haired two-year-old. They chased him into the elevator, and up to the next floor, where they managed to stop him upon approaching door 2A to the forensics lab. Mike grabbed Tommy by his shirt collar, and the two-year-old tried to squirm away, but Mike stopped him.

"Oh no kid, you're done playing, it's time for us to go." Said Mike.

But Tommy didn't want to leave. He was curious to see what was behind that door.

"Wanna go in there little guy? Huh?" Bob asked teasingly.

"We don't have time for this game Bob, we need to go!" Mike hissed.

"Awe come on Mikey, look at how curious the kid is. You'd think he was Curious George or something. Come on Mikey, please?" Bob begged.

"Oh all right, we'll go see what's going on in this room, but if there's nothing interesting in here, we're leaving." Said Mike, as Bob opened the door, and they walked in during the forensics lab program where all of the Rugrats, Bobby, and their families were, along with several other families and their children.

By this time, Bobby had taken his seat, and Susie was at the front of the room, studying bones and asking questions. When Bob, Mike and Tommy arrived, they spotted Susie pointing to a complete skeleton of the human body in the corner of the room, only the skeleton was missing something, it's left hand.

"What's that?" Susie asked, pointing to the skeleton.

"That is a skeleton of the human body. We've been trying to sell it to another museum for years now, but nobody is interested in it because it's missing its left hand." Said Cyndi.

"Well what happened to it?" Susie asked.

"It's gone. Whoever finds it though, could win a prize though, or if one of the museum staff finds it, we could sell that skeleton and earn ourselves enough money to buy a new one, as that skeleton is worth over two-hundred-million dollars." Said Cyndi.

"Wow!" Susie exclaimed.

"That is a lot of money, isn't it Susie?" Cyndi asked.

Susie nodded.

Of course, overhearing this, Mike and Bob exchanged looks, eager to participate in what might be coming. A scavender hunt that the kids were most likely about to take to find that missing skeleton hand.

"And now kids, it's your turn to help us. That's right, it's time, for the big scavender hunt. Are you up for the challenge?" Cyndi asked.

All of the Rugrats and Bobby turned to one another.

"Uh Bobby, do you by chance think that if we find that missing skeleton hand, we might find Tommy too?" Chuckie whispered into Bobby's ear.

"Maybe, there's only one way to find out. Everyone, split off with your buddy, and search for the skeleton hand." Bobby said in a low tone to everybody who was still at the table.

"You all have one hour, that's two episodes of the Dummi Bears, to search this room for the skeleton hand. Good luck." Said Cyndi, as everybody got up from their seats and started searching around the room. The Rugrats each got with their partners they had the previous day at the zoo, as even Hazel and her parents had shown up for this event, and she found Phil at this point, and she and Phil, Jesse and Lil, Chuckie and Dil, Kimi and Zack, and Bobby and Susie started looking around the room for the skeleton hand.

As for Bob, Mike and Tommy, who had left the room, overwhelmed by the bulk of kids at this event, Tommy started to whimper slightly.

"Awe, I think he wants to find that skeleton hand." Said Bob.

"Not a chance. Wait, Baby Thump, you wanna find that hand for us? Make daddy a rich man? If we find that hand, we can sell that skeleton and get us some big money! Come on kid, wanna help us?" Mike asked in a teasing voice, as Tommy pointed and smiled.

" _If I find that hand, maybe I can find my friends and go home!_ " Tommy thought to himself, as he nodded and agreed to go along with this plan, of course, for different reasons entirely than what Bob and Mike had in mind.

Once it appeared that the search was underway, as there was a small window in the door to the forensics lab, they sent Tommy back into the lab, who started crawling around under stuff, as were all of the other kids, as the adults were all sitting together at the end of one table, talking to one another and watching their kids having fun on the scavender hunt.

Bob and Mike found a curtin with some ancient Chinese writing on it that they hid behind, that was next to a flower vace covered in hyrogliffics. From behind here, they kept their eye on Tommy, which wasn't easy to do, since he kept disappearing behind different items, and emerging from each one, empty handed.

Meanwhile, Angelica was not interested in participating, so she, Drew and Charlotte, along with Derek, Kelly, Peter, and Taffy's band mates went off to the eatery downstairs to get a bite to eat, as they were all growing hungry. They let the other adults know where they were going, and they agreed to meet up with them after the scavender hunt was over. Back on the scavender hunt, the bulk of the toddlers, Bobby and Susie were not having much luck finding the missing skeleton hand. However, Zack and Kimi found several colorful rocks, and Jesse found a green and purple pinwheel.

"I founded this pinwheel! Look! See how pretty it is?" Jesse said excitedly, holding up his prize in front of Lil.

"That's nice, but it's not no skeleton hand. Now get that thing out of my face!" Lil snapped.

No sooner had Lil snapped this, when Tommy crawled behind the vace with the hyrogliffics on it, and found the missing skeleton hand. Excited for finding it, Tommy started giggling, as he held the skeleton hand up.

"Hey! Quiet kid." Bob hissed, startling Tommy, who threw the skeleton hand in Chuckie's direction. Seeing it, Chuckie caught it.

"Guys! I got it! I got it! And, I found Tommy! He's behind that plant thing." Said Chuckie, as he pointed to the vase.

"Wow! Are you sure?" Phil asked.

"I'd know Tommy's laugh anywhere Phil." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah, but I've never seen a hand fly before." Said Phil with amazement.

"Me neither!" Said Hazel with a smile in agreement.

Of course, worried they would get caught, Bob grabbed up Tommy quickly from behind the vase, and the two criminals and their kidnapped child, rushed out of the forensics lab, on to the elevator, and out of the museum to head back to their bomb shelter, before any of their plans could be spoiled. Once they were far away from the museum, Mike spoke up.

"So, did the kid get our special hand?" Mike asked.

"No, he threw it and some freckle faced carrottop caught it. What an idiot!" Bob hissed.

"I thought you were the one who said to be nice to the kid." Said Mike.

"Yeah well, our kid ruined our chance at two-hundred-million dollars!" Bob replied angrily, as they made it back to their bomb shelter.

Mike leaned in and whispered into Bob's ear.

"No worries, I got us covered. When the kid is sleeping, I'll fill you in." Whispered Mike into Bob's ear.

Later, when Tommy had fallen asleep on his uncomfortable pile of newspapers, mainly because he was growing exhausted, as a result of a lack of good sleep, and seems as if he was getting the most tired in the afternoons as of late, Mike reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the wad of cash he had stolen from the Museum of Natural History, and added it to the stash that was in the shoebox beneath his cot.

"So, where to tomorrow?" Bob asked, once he saw that Mike had accomplished another mission of getting them more money, and so far, managed to keep it hidden from their kidnapped child, which, they only hoped they could keep it hidden from long enough until their mission was complete, once they hit the Whitehouse come the beginning of the next week.

Mike, who now have charge of that itinerary, pulled it out from beneath Bob's cot and looked it over.

"We'll be hitting two places tomorrow. In the morning, it's to the Jefferson Memorial, in the afternoon, we're hitting the Library of Congress." Said Mike, as he put the itinerary back, slumped down on his cot, and closed his eyes.

"Looks like a long day ahead of us." Said Bob, as he too slumped down on his cot and closed his eyes for an afternoon nap.

"Yeah Bob, but it will be worth it." Said Mike dreamily, as he yawned and fell asleep.

Back at the museum, upon hearing that Chuckie thought he heard Tommy from behind that flower vase, Phil went and peaked back behind there, but found nobody, as it was after Bob and Mike had snatched Tommy out from behind there, and made a mad run for it before getting caught.

"Uh Chuckie, I don't know who you saw, but Tommy isn't back here." Said Phil, as he came out from behind the vase.

"Oh." Said Chuckie disappointingly, as Cyndi approached him, noticing the skeleton hand in his hands.

"You found it! Congratulations…" Cyndi started to say, before she cut herself off, unsure of the child's name. By this time, Chaz and Kira had walked up to Chuckie, who looked a bit disappointed as he knew he heard Tommy, but he was nowhere to be found, plus, he was feeling a bit shy with this lady staring down right at him.

"Chuckie." Chaz said to Cyndi, giving her his son's name.

"Well Chuckie, here is your prize for finding this special skeleton hand." Said Cyndi, as she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Chuckie.

"It's a coupon for any flavor of one scoop of ice cream from our eatery downstairs. You know Chuckie, ice cream is not only tasty, but it's also very healthy for your bones. You see Chuckie, ice cream is made with milk, and milk has calcium, which will help those bones of yours grow! So go get yourself a scoop of your favorite flavor of ice cream, you deserve it." Said Cyndi, as she handed Chuckie the coupon, and took the skeleton hand from him, and put it in her pocket for safe keeping.

"Uh, thank you." Said Chaz, as he took Chuckie's hand that wasn't holding the coupon, and he and Kira went and gathered up the other kids and adults, and everybody headed down to the eatery, where they met up with Peter, Taffy, and everybody else who had gone down there during the scavender hunt, and everybody who participated in the scavender hunt, went and got themselves some lunch, as it was growing near lunchtime by this point in the day.

Once everybody had left the forensics lab, Cyndi applied some glue to the skeleton hand, and glued it to the skeleton's body, making it complete once again, giving it both, its left, and right hand.

Back down at the eatery, Bobby, Susie and the toddlers had all finished lunch, and were all enjoying some ice cream for dessert while gathered together at a table, Chuckie, got a scoop of vanilla ice cream with his coupon.

"Congratulations on your ice cream prize Chuckie." Said Kimi.

"Thanks, but I'd be a lot happier if we had Tommy back." Said Chuckie, as he took his last bite of ice cream and stared back at his sister, who was sitting across from him at the table, a huge frown on his face.

Bobby, who was sitting next to Chuckie, turned to him.

"Don't worry Chuckie, we're not giving up yet. We just need to keep looking harder at all of the places we visit. I'm sure we'll find Tommy before we leave to go home." Said Bobby.

Chuckie tried to let out a small smile, but turned away from Bobby, as the frown came back to his face, as he really wasn't so sure if Tommy would ever be found at this point, and he was quite worried about him, concerned if he was ok, wherever he was at this very moment.

At another table, the adults and teens were talking.

"Well everyone, that's all that was scheduled for today. I called the lemozine, they'll be here in half an hour to pick us up to take us back to the hotel so the kids can have their afternoon nap and Taffy and her band can have another rehearsal down in the lobby." Said Peter, as he took another sip of his soda.

"Thank you Peter, I appreciate it that you've scheduled in time for my band to rehearse, especially since it doesn't look like we'll get much of an opportunity to do so tomorrow." Said Taffy.

"Oh? And why not?" Peter asked.

Taffy pulled out the itinerary from her purse and looked it over.

"Tomorrow morning, is our trip to the Jefferson Memorial, along with other sights, based on what people want to see, if I recall when Didi scheduled the tour with Jen Epstein, she could schedule in the whole morning with us, remaining with us right up until lunchtime." Said Taffy.

"Yes that's correct." Said Didi.

"Then tomorrow afternoon, is our tour of the Library of Congress, and when making the reservations for this one, recall the tours last approximately ninety minutes, this is of course, provided the minis don't escape." Said Taffy.

"No worries, uh, like, Peter and I can watch them." Said Kelly.

"By the way, speaking of the minis, any word about Tommy's whereabouts?" Peter asked.

"No, but I've made sure to say something at every place we've been. So far, the security people at the Spy Museum, National Zoo, and Museum of Natural History are keeping an eye out for him, as everybody has been provided with photos of him, recent ones I had on my phone. I'll also be sure to report him to the people at Jefferson Memorial and the Library of Congress tomorrow." Said Taffy.

"Thank you Taffy, we really appreciate your help in all of this." Said Didi.

"No problem." Said Taffy, as she took another sip of her smoothie.

"That reminds me Deed, Randy and I will have to skip the tour of the Library of Congress tomorrow afternoon." Said Stu.

"Why?" Didi asked.

"Yeah I thought you two were looking forward to this tour." Said Lucy.

"We were, but turns out the guy at the Air and Space Museum wants to meet with us at that time, for Stu to demonstrate his Dummi Bears hot air balloon, and seeing that I'm the head writer for the Dummi Bears, I agreed to accompany Stu to this meeting tomorrow." Said Randy.

"Well ok then." Said Lucy.

"And once the tours are done for the day, I received a text on my phone while we were here at the Museum of Natural History from Sandy. She, Rosie and Mary's train is due to arrive at the train station tomorrow afternoon at four, and I agreed to go pick them up and escort them to the hotel." Said Taffy.

"That's, very nice of you to offer to do that." Said Kira.

"I thought so. Our hotel isn't easy to find in the mess of buildings, and I didn't need Sandy and her two young companions getting lost. They're already going to be exhausted, as they will have traveled here all the way from Boston, being on the train for nearly twelve hours or more, with three transfers. One in Springfield, Mass, another in Albany, NY, and one last one at Pen Station in New York City, before arriving here in Washington D.C." Said Taffy.

"Wow, that's a long trip." Said Chaz.

"Yeah, but Sandy told me she wasn't going to miss the start of my tour, and she promised to bring her minis to visit my minis, which I know they're all really excited about." Said Taffy.

By this time, Betty looked over to see that all of the kids had finished their lunch and dessert, so she started helping to clean everybody up, as it was getting close for the limo to be arriving to take everybody back to their hotel.

Once everybody was cleaned up and their trash was thrown away, they went outside of the museum, to where the limo was waiting for them, piled in, and headed back to the hotel.

And this, ends chapter 4.

Author's Note: Well people, we're halfway through the story at this point, only four more chapters to go, and I see the next few chapters, being long, just like these first four have been. I should also point out a few things, since this story is based off of a real trip I took nearly three years ago now, as it was back in July of 2012 when I visited these places the Rugrats and Bobby are visiting in Washington D.C. However, because this is a ficticious story, some things have been embellished for dramanization, like the forbidden area with a trap door from the airduct sample at the Spy Museum. There is an actual replica of an airduct for people to crawl through at the spy museum, and those gadgets the Rugrats explored before crawling through it do indeed, exist, but I had to find a clever way for Tommy to escape and be kidnapped without the others finding out, and that was the best thing I could come up with. Also, there are actual orangatans at the National Zoo, and if I recall, they're one of the most popular exhibits there for people to look at. Plus, I always thought it was interesting how on, "The Wild Thornberry's," Donny was raised by orangatans before Nigel and Maryanne found him, and I remembered how in, "The Rugrats Movie," when Dil was taken off by the monkeys in the forrest, so I thought it would be kind of funny for Tommy to have some experience with one of our primates, and since I remembered there being orangatans at this zoo, I thought, how perfect! I also have no idea if there really is some abandoned bomb shelter on the outskirts of our nation's capital, but again, that's something I came up with, to give the criminals a place to hide out, and an uncomfortable one at that, as it's going to serve an even bigger purpose in the story in a later chapter, when something happens to Tommy. And what happens to him? Well that's for me to know, and you all, to find out! And as for the program at the forensics lab at the Museum of Natural History, which is what this chapter was all about, I did attend a similar program, where I got to study different bones of the human body, but there were some differences. There is a whole skeleton there with a missing left hand that broke at one time, but when I went there for real, there was no scavender hunt for us to go and find it. I added that in, to make this program a bit more appealing to young kids and toddlers, and, the facts that Bobby and Susie learned from studying the bones, were facts that I learned when I went to this program at that museum, and sadly, the only ones I remember to this day, as I learned a lot more than that when I went, but it's been nearly three years since I attended this, so some events of this particular trip I took have grown fuzzy, while others, stick out in my mind as clear as day now. Also, there is a real eatery at the Museum of Natural History, as well as the restaurant Spy Café at the Spy Museum for people to eat at, and, really, if there was a prize to give out to a child for finding a missing part of a skeleton, a coupon to get ice cream, which has calcium in it, does sound like an appropriate prize, don't you think so? I'll be sure to make more comparrisons between the Rugrats trip and mine in future chapters, let me know if you guys like learning about that, and I'll continue these in future author's notes in chapters to come. Not sure if anymore chapters will get posted today, time will tell, but I'm going to do my best, to have this story finished by June 29, 2015, if not sooner, so I hope you continue to enjoy this story, and, be looking for more chapters, coming soon!


	5. The Memorials and a Sunken Sandwich!

Author's Note: I apologize to you guys for having to wait all weekend for the next chapter of this story to be released. Between being sick, and celebrating Father's Day, time just, sort of got away from me. Be thankful this is only on Fan Fiction, and I wasn't the writer to make this into an actual Rugrats episode, as seeing that it took 9 months to produce a single episode, and they needed to release somewhere between 13 to 26 or 30 episodes per season, I'm sure stories for the episodes had to be written up quickly, so work on the rest of it could get done, as I'm sure they had to work on several episodes at once. If I had taken this long on a television production team to get this story done, I probably would have been replaced by now with somebody else finishing up the story for the episode. Well, no worries, that's not the case here, so let's see to getting on, with the next chapter! And sorry, no Father's Day stories this year, but I do hope everybody had a Happy Father's Day, and if you need something Father's Day related, then check out what I wrote last year on Fan Fiction, titled, Fatherly Whereabouts, A Rugrats Father's Day Story. I promise, I didn't throw together 2 stories previously released by other author's on Fan Fiction, like the producers did with the TV series, sorry, but I'm sure we can all agree, that was just, lazy, but enough on that topic, as I've already gone into that speal with another Fan Fic user on here via PM's, if you wanna launch your complaints to me about what you thought of that, and what you think should have been done instead, we can talk via Reviews to PM's, or in PM's exclusively, but you guys don't wish to hear about the one thing I'd launch a complaint about to the creaters of Rugrats, you want the next chapter of this story, so, let's have it!

Chapter 5, The Memorials and a Sunken Sandwich!

The morning of August 9, 2014…

By this time, poor Tommy was feeling just, miserable! After hardly having a bite to eat or anything to drink over the last couple of days, and having to sleep on an uncomfortable pile of newspapers, by the previous night, leading into the morning of August 9, he couldn't take it anymore, and pulled a younger version of himself or Dil, crying all night, keeping Bob and Mike awake, not having much luck at getting the cranky two-year-old to calm down. Finally, at around sunrise, when there was enough light for them to see, Mike turned over the itinerary, which was blank on the back, and wrote a note with a pen he had in his pocket. The note read the following.

Dear Mr. Thump,

If you are by chance, touring the area, and wish to see your sweet baby Thump ever again, please bring two million dollars to the Library of Congress at thirteen-hundred hours on the afternoon of August 9, 2014. Leave it with security in the main lobby, they'll know who we are.

Signed,

Bob Soulsman and Mike Windkocky

"Hey Mikey, nice ransom note, but was it necessary to include our last names?" Bob asked.

"Of course it was, there's like, probably a ton of people around in this dang capital by the name, Bob and Mike, we kind of had to reveal who we were." Said Mike.

"Yeah, so where are we going to leave this ransom note then?" Bob asked.

"There's only one place to leave it. Our next stop on our little tour is the Jefferson Memorial. We'll just throw it into the reflecting pool out in front of the memorial building." Said Mike.

"Are you crazy? The note will get soggy and unreadable!" Bob griped.

"Not if I use this it won't." Said Mike, as he pulled out something from his back pocket, revealing a sandwich.

"That will make it worse! Give that to me." Bob hissed, as Mike handed him the sandwich.

But this sandwich was no ordinary sandwich. It was one of the newest gadgets to hit the International Spy Museum, that the Rugrats were looking at before Tommy went missing, and left on the ground. It was plastic, with hinges on one side, but how it worked, was one would open up the two pieces of bread, and slip inside, a piece of paper, folded in half. Then, after closing the sandwich, it looked as if the note made up the contents of the stuff that was in between the pieces of bread on the sandwich.

"Wow Mikey, you're a genius! This is perfect! Did you by chance, grab this at the International Spy Museum?" Bob asked.

"Of course I did you moron, where else would I have grabbed it?" Mike asked, as he folded up the piece of paper, and stuck it inside the fake sandwich.

Then, using Tommy as their messenger, they stuffed the sandwich into his shorts pocket, and headed off to the Jefferson Memorial, roughly two hours before it was due to be open for tours by the public. Upon getting to the grounds, where the reflecting pool overlooked the area, they crept over to the edge of the pool, where Bob placed Tommy on the ground.

"Ok little guy, wanna see your mommy and daddy again? Just drop this sandwich from your pocket into the pool, and daddy will get you a cookie!" Bob teasingly lied, as he pulled the sandwich out of Tommy's pocket, and placed it into his hand.

Tommy looked from Bob to the pool. He wasn't sure if this would really get him closer to his family, but he wasn't giving up yet, so he threw it into the water. No sooner had it made a splash into the pool, when Mike came up behind Bob, and turned his attention away from Tommy.

"Now's our chance. The Memorial Museum isn't open yet, but there's janniters inside cleaning. Let's sneak in and grab the cash while we have a chance." Whispered Mike into Bob's ear.

Completely forgetting about Tommy, the two criminals made a break for a side door for authorized personell only, that was propped open. Being sneaky, they looked around and saw that nobody was in sight, so they snuck in, and found janniters inside, cleaning up the place. Noticing how occupied they were, Bob and Mike split up, Bob headed for the Jefferson Memorial gift shop, while Mike headed for the main offices, and using their secret keys, they snuck in, and grabbed themselves a fair chunk of cash out of the safes at this particular location.

Meanwhile, feeling thirsty, Tommy did something he hardly ever does, but by this point, he didn't care, he was desperate! Acting like a dog, he knelt down, and started drinking out of the reflecting pool. Once he had had his share of some water at least, he figured that since Bob and Mike had deserted him once again, he wasn't sure what they were up to, but finding his family didn't seem to be top priority on their list, so the two-year-old went on a tour of the various memorials himself, unknowing to him that nobody had arrived yet, but in just a couple of hours, his friends and family would soon be amongst the tourests exploring the various memorials on that particular day.

Two hours later, the Rugrats and their families, along with Bobby Generic and his family, arrived at the grounds of the Jefferson Memorial, where they met up with a tour guide with brown hair by the name of Jen Epstein.

"Good morning everybody. My name is Jen Epstein and I'm going to be your guide today." Said Jen.

Didi walked up and shook her hand.

"Yes, I'm Didi Pickles. I booked this tour after reading about you in Lipchitz's latest newsletter." Said Didi, shaking Jen's hand.

"Oh yes, I know Dr. Lipchitz quite well, and let me assure you, we're gonna make today's tour fun and educational for your children. I also happen to see that King Peter Albany of the Confederacy is here, as well as Taffy and the Saltwaters, I know some of our staff are expecting you inside our main building, where the Jefferson Memorial is housed, and to any of you looking to buy soovineers, we have a gift shop inside as well. Are you ready to come inside?" Jen asked.

All of the adults nodded, and grabbing on to the back of the toddlers strollers, Jen led everybody inside of the Jefferson Memorial building, where they went upstairs, to the actual memorial, where they gathered around the base, and Jen presented some facts about Thomas Jefferson.

"You know boys and girls, Thomas Jefferson was our third President of the United States." Jen explained, before Angelica raised her hand.

"Yes little girl you have a question?" Jen asked.

"First of all mam, I'm not a little girl, my name's Angelica and I'm five-years-old. I'm gonna be starting kindergarten soon. And secondly, are you saying that as President of America, you can get a memorial and be turned into a statue after you die?" Angelica asked.

"Yes Angelica, many of our great presidents are featured as Memorials, so people today can remember all of the great things they were known for during their time as Presidency." Jen explained.

As she went on to talk more about Thomas Jefferson, and get everybody situated to take a group photo, before it was time for Taffy to hand out her tour flyers to the staff at the memorials, Angelica went off into her own little daydream, where she saw an Angelica Memorial, featuring a huge swimming pool in front, and the building looked like a giant castle. Inside, stood a huge statue made out of gold that looked like herself, surrounded by everything she loved, a giant replica of her Cynthia doll and a jar of cookies were amongst them.

"President Angelica, our forty-fifth President of the United States, absolutely loved cookies, and wouldn't eat anything else." Explained a tour guide to several imaginary people touring the Angelica Memorial in her daydream.

"Angelica? Angelica?" Angelica started to hear somebody say, as she was snapped out of her daydream, to find it was Jen trying to get her attention.

"Angelica, we need you to move over next to this little girl so we can take the picture." Said Jen, gently putting a hand on Angelica's shoulder and placing her next to Susie.

"Here Angelica, we're gonna put you next to…" Jen started to say, before she was cut off.

"Oh, hi, I'm Susie Carmichael." Said Susie.

"Nice to meet you Susie." Said Jen.

Of course, Angelica wasn't all that up to being next to Susie for this photo, but before she could complain, the other toddlers were placed down in front of them, and once everybody was situated for the picture, Jen took the photo with all of the cameras that people brought with them, either as separate cameras, or on their phones. After what seemed like the bazillionth picture, there was only one more that needed to be taken, the one with Peter's iPhone.

"Ok kids, one final picture." Said Jen, as she snapped the last picture with Peter's iPhone, then gave it back to him, and no sooner had Peter taken it from her, when all of the toddlers, Bobby, Susie and Angelica, started running around the room with the memorial in it.

"Stop it kids, stop it! The memorials here are very delicate, and we don't want anything to get broken. Come with me everybody down to our gift shop, where you can pick out soovineers, and where the people interested in meeting with Taffy and her band, should be waiting for us." Said Jen, as she jestured to the adults and toddlers to follow her back downstairs to the gift shop.

Once down at the gift shop, Kira picked up some more postcards, while Taffy went off to meet with the people she was scheduled to meet with. After everybody was done looking around the gift shop, they all headed outside, where Jen told them about some of the other memorials they could check out. While the adults congregated around one another, trying to decide who wanted to go to which memorials, Kimi, who was looking around in fascination from her stroller, spotted something in the reflecting pool.

"Guys, I see something in that rejecting pool over there." Said Kimi.

"Really? Come on everybody, let's go take a look at it." Said Zack, as he hopped out of his stroller, Bobby, Susie, and the other toddlers, following Zack and Kimi over to the reflecting pool.

Once at the reflecting pool, Zack reached in and pulled out the foreign object.

"Is this what you saw Kimi?" Zack asked, holding up the object.

"Yes, and it looks like a sandwich!" Kimi exclaimed.

"Oooh boy, a watery sandwich, mind if I have a taste?" Phil asked, as Zack handed it to him, only for Phil to be disappointed when he tried to bite into the sandwich, only to find it was made out of plastic.

"Wait a second you guys, this is no real sandwich, it's play food." Said Phil.

"But who would throw play food into the rejecting pool?" Chuckie asked.

"I don't know, let me take a look at that." Said Zack, just as Hazel and her family arrived at the grounds, and spotting Phil, Hazel rushed over to them.

"How's my Philly Willy today? Hazel asked, smiling and tapping Phil on the shoulder.

"Hey! You leave my brother alone!" Lil snapped.

"Snap out of it Lillian, your partner is Jesse, and he's right next to you." Said Phil.

"Well I don't wanna tour with Jesse no more. I want my brother back." Lil hissed.

"Oh come on Lil, you know you like me." Jesse said with a grin.

"No, I don't like you in that way." Said Lil.

A tear silently rolled down Jesse's cheek, as Zack studied the sandwich.

"Wait a minute, there's something inside here." Said Zack, as he pulled open the sandwich and found the note.

"What's it say Zack?" Kimi asked.

"Well, seeing that I'm the onliest twenty-two-months-old baby who can read, I'll read the note." Said Zack, as he unfolded the note, cleared his throat, and read the note out loud to the other toddlers.

"It says, Dear Mr. Thump,

If you are by chance, touring the area, and wish to see your sweet baby Thump ever again, please bring two million dollars to the Library of Congress at thirteen-hundred hours on the afternoon of August 9, 2014. Leave it with security in the main lobby, they'll know who we are.

Signed,

Bob Soulsman and Mike Windkocky." Read aloud Zack from the note.

"Sorry, but we don't know a Bob and a Mike." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah and we don't know nobody named Thump neither." Added Kimi.

"Wait a minute you guys, what if Baby Thump is really Tommy?" Bobby asked.

"Come on Bobby, there is no way Tommy would have turned into Baby Thump, that's just silly." Said Susie.

"Wait a second you guys, I think our leader detective is on to something here. Baby Thump is Tommy, because last I knew, Tommy hadn't learned how to say his real name to the growed ups yet, and this had to be written by a growed up. I can read, but I can't exactly write yet." Said Zack.

"So does this mean we've gots to bring two million dollars to that library we're going to this afternoon to get my brother back?" Dil asked.

"Yep, looks like it." Zack replied.

"Great, but there's one problem." Said Chuckie.

"What is it?" Zack asked.

"We don't got two million dollars!" Chuckie shouted.

"Well in that case, it's time for me to turn to my favoritest super hero of all times, Super Why, as he'll help us change the note and find something we can give to this Bob and Mike peoples to get Tommy back." Said Zack.

"Oh come on Zack, we don't gots two million dollars and all you wanna do is play Make Believe? Besides, Tommy likes Super Why even less than Space Deck Babies." Said Chuckie.

"I don't know about that. At least he lets me watch Super Why at his house and my place, without constantly complaining about it, making a comment about what he prefers to watch, except for that one time when he shut it off before the episode ended, all cuz he was still mad at me for breaking that promise to keep his trip to see Rosie a secret, but that's another story in itself. And don't I recall you telling me Chuckie, that the firstest time he slept over at your house, you two attempted to watch Space Deck Babies, and all he did was change the channel to Reptar and claim that he always watches that at his house?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with getting him back?" Chuckie asked.

"Nothing. Besides, I bet ya, if I pretend to be Super Why, and change this note, and in the end, we get Tommy back, maybe he'll change his mind about that show and start enjoying it more." Said Zack.

"I think your idea is a great one!" Kimi said with a smile.

"Thanks Kimi, though you always think my ideas are great." Said Zack, grinning at Kimi.

"Don't be too fooled by my sister Zack, she thinks every idea is a good one." Said Chuckie.

"The grown ups always ask me that stupid bridge question, about if your friend jumped off the broken bridge, would you do it too?" Bobby asked.

"Oh boy! Jumping off a bridge sounds like fun!" Said Kimi.

"See?" Chuckie asked.

"No worries Chuckie, me and Kimi aren't jumping off any bridges. Now, we've gots to figure out what we can give this Bob and Mike person instead of two million dollars in order to get Tommy back." Said Zack, as his fantasy began.

"With the power to read, I'm going to live up to the super powers of my most favoritest super hero ever, and change the ransom note so I can get Tommy back." Said Zack, now dressed as Super Why with blonde hair.

"So what are we gonna change in the note?" Kimi asked.

"Well, got any ideas?" Zack asked.

Kimi pulled her library card out of the pocket of her dress.

"How about my library card." Suggested Kimi.

"That's a great idea! How about it everybody, we all give our library cards over to Bob and Mike, and they give Tommy back to us in exchange." Said Zack.

"I don't know you guys, our library cards are our tickets to the world. Without them, won't we float away to outside space?" Chuckie asked.

"Maybe, but we'd at least have Tommy with us. And isn't our friend more aportant than some dumb old library cards?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. All right, I'll do it." Said Chuckie, pulling his library card out of his pocket and holding it up.

"Me too." Said Dil, as he pulled his library card out of his diaper.

Everyone who had library cards held them up in the air, and bumped them together, as if they were making a toast, agreeing that they'd trade in their library cards once they got to the Library of Congress later on that same day. It was at this point when Zack's Super Why fantasy ended, returning him back to the reality of the Jefferson Memorial reflecting pool, appearing as his usual toddler self, opposed to a blond version of Super Why.

"So what do we do now?" Susie asked.

"For now, we enjoy the memories our families wanna see, we'll resume, Operation, Get Tommy Back, when we get to the library." Said Zack, as he placed the fake sandwich and ransom note into his shorts pocket for safe keeping, then went and found his aunt.

By the time everybody caught up with their families, everybody had decided on which memorials they were interested in visiting. Wanting to stay with their partners, except for Lil, who wasn't interested in sticking with Jesse anymore, only she was sad to learn she had no choice, when the Barrows, Devilles and Hazel's family all decided to take a look at the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, while the Finsters, Pickles, and Wehrenbergs all decided to go check out the George Mason Memorial, and everybody else, decided to go check out the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

Meanwhile, Tommy was growing hot and tired, as it was a very hot sunny day, and there wasn't a lot of shade at these memorials, so Tommy made himself comfortable behind a statue of George Mason at that particular exhibit, peaking out from behind it from time to time, to see if he spotted anybody he recognized. Of course, by this time, Bob and Mike were wandering all over the bulk of the memorials, trying to find Tommy, as upon leaving the Jefferson Memorial building, they saw that Tommy had left the reflecting pool, causing them to run after him.

"Well, at least come this afternoon, we won't have to fool with this kid no more." Mike muttered under his breath.

"That is, if they bring our two-million dollars." Bob muttered back at Mike, as they continued to stroll through the memorials, pretending to act as tourests, while in reality, they were frantically trying to find Tommy, before somebody else did, and possibly turned them in for kidnapping.

Over at the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, Jen had caught up with the crew over there, to see if anybody had any questions. She also explained to the kids a little bit about Franklin D Roosevelt.

"Franklin D Roosevelt was the thirty-second President of the United States, serving in office for four terms, this President oversaw such events in our nation's history, such as the Great Depression, and the second World War." Explained Jen to everybody touring this exhibit, as the Devilles, Barrows, and Hazel's family, looked around at the exhibits.

The toddlers were more or less, still traveling together, Jesse and Lil, giving one another the silent treatment at this point, while Phil and Hazel were striking up conversation from time to time. While wandering around the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, Hazel and Phil spotted a statue of Franklin sitting next to one of those old fashion radios from the 1930's.

"Wow! That's the biggest talking music box I ever sawed! Biggerer than Tommy's grandpa's!" Said Phil.

"Oh wow cool!" Said Hazel.

Phil turned to Hazel and nodded with a smile.

"Say Phil." Said Hazel.

"What." Phil said.

"Do you miss Tommy?" Hazel asked.

"Yeah, I think we all miss Tommy. But it's been nice getting to know a girl as sweet and as prettiful as you." Said Phil with a grin, as he gazed passionately into Hazel's eyes.

"Thanks, it's been nice getting to know you too. As for Tommy, I don't know him all that well. I only metted him briefly at Rosie's birthday party a few months back. Poor guy gotted sick on the cake and ice cream." Said Hazel.

"Yeah Tommy tolded us all about that." Said Phil.

"Yeah, I just hope Tommy is back with us by tonight. Rosie is spose to arrive today. She's my bestest friend, and she's always talking about how cute Tommy is and how she wants to marry him someday. I just hope they can do that, and it isn't too late." Said Hazel.

"I wouldn't worry Hazel, I'm sure we'll get Tommy back." Said Phil.

"I hope so, I don't wanna see my bestest friend Rosie cry. And just in case the library cards don't work, I've gots us a backup plan." Said Hazel with a smile.

"Oooh, what's your backup plan? Tell me! Tell me!" Jesse chanted while jumping up and down, overhearing their conversation, eager to hear what Hazel had in mind, if by chance, Bob and Mike didn't accept everybody's library cards.

"You know Jesse, it's rude to listen in on other peoples conversations." Said Lil.

"You're one to talk, you've been rude to me ever since we were paired up as partners. Why don't you just, leave me alone." Said Jesse, as he stuck his tongue out at Lil.

Lil just gave him an angry glare, as she too stuck her tongue out at him, then turned back to watch where she was going.

"Come on Lil, Jesse was only curious. Do you have to be mean to him like that?" Hazel asked.

"Yes, yes I did. And if you don't stop hanging around my brother, I'll start being mean to you too, so you'd better watch out." Snapped Lil, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Well I'm sorry Lil, but I like Phil, and Phil likes me, so just, get use to it. And as for you Jesse, sorry, that's for me to know, and for you to find out, should we need it." Said Hazel.

Jesse let out a small moan with a sigh, as he, Lil, Phil and Hazel continued to explore the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial with their families, more or less, in silence at this point.

Over at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Bobby and Susie were exploring the exhibit together, when they caught up to Bobby's mom Martha, who was eyeing one of the plaques that had some information on it about Martin Luther King Jr. when she turned around, to see Bobby and Susie hanging together.

"Oh, there you two are. Enjoying this g golly exhibit now?" Martha asked.

"We sure are Mrs. Generic." Susie replied with a smile.

"You know, it's thanks to that Martin Luther King Jr. now that you two are able to play together." Explained Martha.

"It is?" Bobby asked.

"Oh yes. He had this dream, that black and white people, could live in harmony together, side by side don't ya know." Said Martha, as Bobby started to have a daydream about the whole thing.

In Bobby's daydream, he and Susie were in a huge room, complete with two televisions, two water fountains, and two tables filled with bowls of cerial. Bobby, curious about the purple cerial that was turning the milk in the bowl purple, approached that table.

"Hey! Mind if I have some of your cerial?" Bobby asked.

"Sorry, but this Reptar cerial is only for black people like me. Your cerial is over on the table to your left, it turns milk green." Said Susie, who pointed to a table filled with white kids, with an empty space for Bobby to go and sit, where his bowl of Reptar cerial sat, it being filled with the green cerial that everybody is familiar with.

"Oh wow, I didn't know there were two Reptars." Bobby said under his breath, as he took his seat at the table, where he ate his Reptar cerial.

Then, after he finished, he looked up to see two televisions. On the one closest to him, it showed the green Reptar, fighting some giant cockroaches, while on the TV over Susie's table, it was a purple Reptar with a blue tongue, as he was in some getto community, fighting some giant misquitos.

"I wanna watch Reptar vs. the Giant Miscitos!" Bobby exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, but that show is only for the black community." Said another kid at his table.

"Awe, you mean because we're white, we're stuck having to watch Reptar fight a bunch of giant cockroaches? Eeewww! Gross!" Bobby said, a look of disgust on his face.

The other kids at the table nodded, as they returned their attention to their television screen. Then, feeling thirsty, Bobby got out of his seat, and approached two water fountains on the other side of the room, one was black, while the other one was silver.

"Which one is mine?" Bobby asked.

"The silver one, Dweeb." He heard Derek say from somewhere behind him.

At this point, Bobby slammed his fist down on his water fountain, turned around, and now, dressed as Martin Luther King Jr. was when giving his famous speech, he cleared his throat, and made an announcement to everybody.

I have a dream. That's right people, I have a dream! A dream where black and white kids can play together. Share the same water fountain, eat the same Reptar cerial, and watch the same Reptar movies. I have a dream that Reptar will be green, not one green dinosaur and one purple dinosaur. I have a dream that we can all be friends, go to school together, and have fun together, no matter what color we are. Whether we're black, white, red or blue, you can be friends with me, and I can be friends with you. Let freedom ring people, let, freedom, ring." Said Bobby, as he concluded his speech, causing both, the white kids and Susie and the black kids, to clap and cheer for him.

At this point, Bobby came out of his daydream, returning him to the reality of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, as he continued to explore the exhibit with Susie.

"You know what Susie, I'm glad Martin Luther's dream came true and we get to be friends." Said Bobby.

"Me too Bobby, you're a lot of fun to play with, and it's been great being your next-door neighbor over the last year or so." Said Susie with a grin, as they continued to walk together, side by side, holding hands.

Over at the George Mason Memorial, Chuckie, Dil, Zack, Kimi and Angelica along with their families were exploring this exhibit, when Jen came over to explain a little bit about George Mason to the group. Of course, Dil and Chuckie were getting bored, so they took a walk around the small Memorial, as Dil proceeded to walk backwards, holding on to Chuckie's hand.

"Hey Chuckie, do you think this Bob and Mike person might just be aliums from outside space?" Dil asked.

"Dil, there's no such things as aliums." Said Chuckie.

"I think there are, I mean, who else would eat a plastic sandwich with paper inside?" Dil asked.

"Yeah, that's true. And do you really have to walk backwards? It's really starting to bug me." Said Chuckie.

"Yes I do C man." Said Dil.

"Why?" Chuckie asked.

"Cuz walking frontwards is just, too boring. Everybody does it. I like being different." Said Dil, as Chuckie spotted something out of the corner of his eye behind one of the statues of George Mason.

"Oh my gosh! It's Tommy! Hey Tommy." Chuckie called.

"Chuckie!" Tommy called from behind the statue.

"I heard it too, but where is he?" Dil asked.

"Well, maybe if you turndid around, you'd see where I was pointing." Said Chuckie, as he grabbed at Dil's shoulders, and spun him around, fixing his head on the statue where Tommy's head was poking out from behind it.

"We're coming Tommy." Chuckie called, but as he ran over towards the statue, he tripped on his untied shoelaces, falling to the ground.

"Outch." Chuckie cried.

"You ok?" Dil asked, as he came over and helped Chuckie up.

"Yeah, I guess so." Said Chuckie.

Unfortunately, no sooner had Tommy called Chuckie's name, when Bob and Mike, who were still searching for him, overheard his babbling of Chuckie's name, as Bob reached out from a plantern where he had perched himself near where Tommy was peaking out from behind the statue of George Mason.

"Quick! Grab him! Now!" Mike hissed softly into Bob's ear.

Bob grabbed up Tommy by his shirt collar, and the two criminals and Tommy were running out of the Memorials faster than a speeding bullet. Once they had reached the outskirts of the Jefferson Memorial, they stopped to catch their breath, after looking around to see that the area was currently deserted.

"So, where to now Mikey?" Bob asked.

"To the Library of Congress you idiot, let's go." Said Mike, as they headed off in the direction of the Library of Congress.

Back at the George Mason Memorial, once Chuckie had stood up and brushed himself off, he and Dil approached the statue where they heard Tommy's voice come from behind, and saw his head poke out from behind, only to find nobody there.

"I know this is where I saw Tommy." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah, me too, but he's not here." Said Dil.

They searched the rest of the Memorial, but no sign of Tommy anywhere.

Finally, Chuckie gave up, as he sat down on the hot pavement, as the sun was beating down hard, as it was nearly noon time, as he started to cry. Overhearing his cries, Zack and Kimi rushed over.

"Awe, what's wrong Chuckie?" Kimi asked, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder.

"Tommy's, not, here." Chuckie said through his sobs.

"Of course Tommy's not here." Said Angelica, as she passed by, overhearing what Chuckie said to Kimi.

"Uh, Yucky, me and Chubby sawed Tommy, but then, he mysteriously disappeardid. To where? I don't know." Said Dil.

"First of all, you're going to be two-years-old soon, so quit calling me Yucky. My name's Angelica. Secondly, whatever you two saw, was some dumb statue of some guy named George Mason, not Tommy." Angelica griped.

"But Angelica, we saw him." Chuckie cried.

"Yeah right. That's why you guys will always be nothing but dumb babies, cuz you can't even tell the difference between Tommy and a statue of some famous dead guy." Said Angelica, as she stomped off, no longer interested in playing this game with the babies.

"I did too see Tommy." Chuckie shouted, but Angelica had wandered off way too far for her to hear him.

"Don't listen to her Chuckie, after all, she doesn't even know how to spell her own name, let alone how to keep a promise. And Angelica thinks she's gonna become President? Ha, dream on." Said Zack, who had caught up to the group at this point.

"Well you believe me Zack and Kimi, don't you?" Chuckie asked.

"I believe you." Said Kimi.

"Well, I'd like to believe you, but I'd have an easier time believing you if I saw it." Said Zack.

"Why should I listen to you Zack? After all, you're the reason why Tommy went missing in the firstest place." Snapped Chuckie.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Said Zack.

"Yes you do. You convinced me to not go with Tommy into that dark, scary, high up airduct thing. Had I gone with him, we'd all still be together." Said Chuckie.

"I don't know Chuckie, it might be a good thing you didn't. Then two of you would be missing. And besides, you didn't have to listen to me, but you chose to listen to me instead of following after Tommy." Said Zack.

"Only cuz of your comment about us not being babies forever, and I shouldn't follow Tommy for the rest of my life. Let me tell you something Zack. You may be our friend now, but me and Tommy have a history that spans farther back than you'll ever know, and I'm not gonna let you ruin things for us. You nearly did over a year ago when he gotted that Gray Plague, and you showed up at my Birthday party and Tommy didn't, and later, at the Reptar show, when he lefted early, you tried to get me to think that The Gray Plague changes a person." Said Chuckie.

"And I was wrong about those things." Said Zack, before Chuckie cut him off.

"And now, here you are, doing it again. What is wrong with you anyway? You jealous of me and Tommy or something?" Chuckie asked, now sounding angry.

"I'm not jealous of nobody. If I wasn't mistaken, I'd think you're just mad that I'm spending more time with your sister now, and you don't like it, so you're using Tommy's missing as an excuse to yell at me." Said Zack.

"That's not true at all." Said Chuckie.

"Oh come on Chuckie. Just wait and see. Someday, should me and Kimi carve our initials into the wall of your garage, you're gonna see it, and go nuts." Said Zack.

"Well you're not gonna carve your initials into no wall of my garage, cuz for one, you can't write yet, and two, I'm not gonna let you. Come on Kimi." Said Chuckie, as he grabbed a firm hold of Kimi's arm, and drug her over to where their parents were eyeing another part of the George Mason Memorial, and thanking Jen for her time with the group, explaining things and taking them on a tour of the memorials.

"Come on Dil." Zack muttered, as he took Dil by the hand, and they caught up to his aunt, and Dil's parents, who had found a nearby bench, and were sitting down, drinking some water they had brought with them, to quench their thirst.

"I'm glad to not be around Chuckie no more. He keeps getting fed up with my weird ways of walking backwards and talking about aliums." Whispered Dil into Zack's ear.

"No offense Dil, but while I understand you're different, at times, you get on my nerves too. So please, just, do me a favor? Try to be normen for a bit? Please?" Zack begged into Dil's ear.

"No, I like being the way I am, and you're not gonna change me. And I'm sure Tommy wouldn't appreciate you putting me down." Argued Dil back at Zack.

"Yeah well Tommy's not here. But once he's back, you can have your brother all to yourself, cuz seems as nobody wants me to have any fun, and I'm only trying to help find Tommy and get him back, but the rest of you are too busy arguing about girls and boys, and stupid stuff, really, am I the only one with a rational head on their shoulders?" Zack shouted at the top of his lungs, as Bobby, Susie, and all of the other toddlers had caught up with him at this point, their parents, siblings, Peter, and Taffy and her band, all congregated with Celeste, Stu and Didi on the bench, trying to decide where to have their picnic lunch.

Of course, nobody answered Zack, they all just gave him some kind of look that said, you may be intelligent, but you're not trying hard enough.

"Fine, give me the silent treatment, and be annoyed that I'm spending too much time with Kimi and didn't give you back your sister sooner and take alium backwards boy off of your hands, but I think Kimi is cute, and nothing you say Chuckie, is gonna change that. So just, leave me alone!" Zack snapped, pointing a finger at Chuckie.

"Fine! I will." Chuckie snapped back, as he turned his back on Zack, and approached his mom, taking her by the hand.

"There you are Chuckie, ready to go get some lunch?" Kira asked.

Chuckie looked up at his mom, smiled and nodded, as he was starting to grow hungry.

"Really Zack? You think I'm cute?" Kimi asked.

"Yes Kimi, I do. Also, your bubbly attitude is helping me to stay sane on this trip, as I feel bad enough that Tommy went missing, but whenever I hear your chipper voice or see your smile, something just, tells me, that everything is going to be ok." Said Zack, as he smiled at Kimi.

"Awe, that is so sweet!" Said Kimi, as she ran up to Zack and gave him a hug.

"So Dil, ready to go?" Zack asked, as he turned to Dil, who now had his arms crossed, a hurt expression on his face.

"Yeah, but not with you." Said Dil.

"Why not?" Zack asked.

"Yeah don't you like us anymore?" Kimi asked.

"Kimi? Yes. Zack? No. Sorry, but what you said back there, calling me those names, well, it really hurt." Said Dil.

Before Zack could say anything, his aunt scooped him up and put him into his stroller, as Didi strapped Dil into his stroller, the other families with their kids strapped into strollers came along, as they all decided to find a picnicking spot between the Jefferson Memorial and the Library of Congress, to eat some lunch of sandwiches they had all made up that morning with stuff they bought to eat and make sandwiches with at the hotel, to save money on food a little bit, since they knew what they ordered at the baseball game and on the trip home might get expensive.

Well they found a spot with some shady trees, sat down, unpacked the sandwiches and water bottles they brought with them, and while all of the adults had a friendly conversation with one another, the kids more or less, ate in silence.

And this, ends chapter 5. So, what will happen at the Library of Congress? Will trading in their library cards get Tommy back? Will the gang speak to one another again? Or is it up to each one of them separately, to try to get Tommy back in their own way. We'll find out, in the next chapter, so please, do stay tuned!


	6. No Ticket to the World?

Chapter 6, No Ticket to the World?

The afternoon of August 9, 2014…

After everyone had finished their lunches, they found a nearby garbage can to throw the food away in, and headed down the sidewalk towards the Library of Congress. However, when getting to a cross street, Stu and Randy, turned in the direction of the Air and Space Museum.

"Stu honey, where are you going?" Didi asked.

"Don't you remember Deed? Randy and I have that meeting at the Air and Space museum with those people interested in my latest and greatest invention, my Dunni Bears hot air balloon." Stu replied.

"Oh, that's right." Said Didi.

"No worries everybody, Stu and I will taxi it back to the hotel later on this afternoon after our appointment is finished." Said Randy.

"Good luck dear." Said Lucy.

"Thank you." Said Randy, as the light changed, and he and Stu crossed the street, and continued on to the Air and Space Museum.

A few minutes later, the rest of the gang arrived at the Library of Congress.

"And here we are everybody, the Library of Congress, a national monument I've always wanted to visit ever since I was a little girl." Said Charlotte in an excited voice.

They headed inside where they were met by a large lobby with several noisy tourests, gathered in a long line, to head through security and head on tours of the Library of Congress.

"This is a library? It seems awfully noisy to be a library." Said Kimi.

Before they knew it, the line had moved along, and it was time for the Rugrats and their families, Peter, Taffy and the Salt Waters, and the Generics, to pass through security and meet their tour guide on the other side.

"We're at the security checkpoint people." Said Howard G, as he emptied his pockets and put everything into the little bin, and made his way through security, like the same security system at the airports.

"Guys, we're at security, that's where the ransom note said to give the two million dollars, or in our case, our library cards. Everybody, hand me your library cards, and I'll give them to the person in security." Said Bobby, as Zack, Kimi, Chuckie, Dil, and by this time, Susie, Jesse, Phil, and Lil all had library cards as well. Hazel was the only one who didn't have one, but she was ready if this plan failed to work. Everybody handed Bobby their library cards, then, after he walked through security, he pulled his own library card out of his pocket, and attempted to hand it to what he thought was the person checking them in at security, only it was their tour guide at the other end of security.

"Yes little man?" Said the tour guide, an elderly looking lady wearing blue clothing.

"Yeah, this is my library card." Said Bobby, as he attempted to hand the library card to the lady, only to have the lady return it to him.

"Sorry young man, but you won't be needing your library card here." Said the tour guide.

"Why not?" Bobby asked, looking puzzled.

"Because this is the Library of Congress, and the card you have there, is for a public library." Said the tour guide.

"Oh, well how do I get a library of congress ccard then?" Bobby asked.

"Well, only members of congress can check books out at this library, the vast majority of citizens like yourself, can only come here to tour the library, or use our provided reading rooms, to sit and read material we have stored here at the library." Explained the tour guide.

Disappointed, Bobby turned around to see that his family, all of the toddlers, and their families had passed through security, so he went around, and returned each library card to each one of the toddlers, while the tour guide went on to introduce herself, and explain a little bit about the Library of Congress.

"Good afternoon everybody, my name is Mrs. Nole and I'll be your guide today. You know, the Library of Congress is the home to thousands of books, some of which, can only be found here. We also have a couple of very special exhibits, a George Girshwin and a Bob Hope exhibit if anybody's interested." Said Mrs. Nole.

"Do you have a gift shop? I've been collecting postcards at all of our stops." Kira asked.

"Yes we do." Mrs. Nole replied, as she pointed towards the doors that led into the gift shop.

"So, where do you guys wish to start?" Mrs. Nole asked.

"I want to check out the Girshwin exhibit." Said a member of Taffy's band.

"Oh yes, you appear to be with Taffy and the Salt Waters, I believe some people will be wanting to meet with you, but they won't be here for another fifteen minutes, so, come with me everybody, to the Girshwin exhibit." Said Mrs. Nole, as she led everybody to a room, where the Girshwin exhibit was.

Upon entering the room, Girshwin's music filled the room, and surrounding everybody, were pictures of him, along with his piano, and original sheet music he wrote.

"Now this, is cool! I hope someday, the Library of Congress is able to make room for the Taffy Exhibit." Said Taffy dreamily, as she looked around the room, amazed by what she saw, even though Girshwin wasn't one of her personal favorites, she was always amazed by any musician, no matter what style of music they played, if they made it far enough to be featured at a place like this.

After a while, some staff from the library came and met up with Taffy, who went off with them to hand out her flyers and promote her tour, while some of the adults got bored, and went off to look at the Bob Hope exhibit, which was in the room next door. Of course, by this point, all of the adults were either engrossed in the exhibit, heading off to other exhibits, or in Kira's case, stopping off at the gift shop to buy postcards, and no longer paying attention to the kids, as even Peter and Kelly were sharing moments with each other, giving Bobby a chance to get Susie and the toddler's attention.

"Well, bad news, apparently, we have to be members of congress in order to have library cards here." Said Bobby.

"How do we become members of congress?" Lil asked.

"I don't know, I'll ask my brother." Said Bobby, as he approached Derek, who was twittling his thumbs, looking bored. Bobby, poked him in the ribs to get his attention.

"What do you want, dork?" Derek asked.

"How do you become a member of congress?" Bobby asked.

"By being another twelve years older and several feet taller. You're too little to become a member of congress dweeb." Said Derek.

Disappointed, Bobby made his way back over to the toddlers.

"Derek says we're too little." Said Bobby.

"Yeah, we heard." Said Phil.

"Ok Hazel, what's your brilliant backup plan?" Bobby asked.

"Wormies!" Hazel exclaimed.

"Wormies?" All of the toddlers and Bobby replied in unison.

"Well, yes." Said Hazel.

"How are worms gonna get Tommy back?" Chuckie asked.

"Well, we're at a library, and libraries are filled with all sorts of books. And my mommy always talks about book worms." Explained Hazel.

"You mean, worms can read? Wow!" Said Phil.

"I didn't know that." Added Lil.

"Yep, so, all we've gots to do, is split up, go all over the library, let these wormies loose, and eventually, the wormies will be so busy reading all of the books, that if that Bob and Mike person are around here somewhere, they won't wanna stay cuz they'll interrupt the wormies, so they'll ditch Tommy and make a run for it." Explained Hazel, as she lifted up the blue dress she was wearing, to reveal her diaper, where she pulled out a handful of worms, and started passing them out to all of the toddlers.

"Wow! Great plan Hazel." Said Kimi, as she took her worms.

"Yuck!" Said Chuckie, as he dropped his stack of worms, only to have them crawl off into the hallway outside of the Girshwin exhibit.

"Come on everybody." Hazel called, as all of the toddlers and Bobby split up, chasing after Chuckie's worms, running into all of the rooms of the Library of Congress on the two floors, the rooms containing books, the reading rooms, and any room they could enter, leaving worms wherever they ran.

Of course, while Hazel thought the worms was a good idea, something told her it might not be enough, so unknown by the other toddlers, she also grabbed handfuls of mud out of her diaper, and started spreading it all over the floors and walls of the library, as well as any books she was able to reach.

"Wormies like their dirt." Said Hazel, as she turned and smiled at Phil, who had caught up to her at this point.

"Yep, they sure do." Said Phil.

"And it pays to not get potty trained till you turn three, or at least that's what my mommy and daddy gots planned, so I could provide everything in my diapie." Said Hazel.

"Yeah, those were the days." Said Phil longingly.

"Yeah, I can wait a little bit longer. I'll never forget when Rosie was getting potty trained. All she could talk about was how she wanted to be potty trained so she could impress Tommy, as he was potty trained when they metted, although I heardid he kept having diarrhea accidents in front of her. I guess, diarrhea is hard to control during potty training." Said Hazel.

"I've been lucky to not get the runnies in a while. It helps to cut back on eating entire boxes of crayons." Said Phil.

"Hmmm, maybe that was Tommy's problem. He ated too many boxes of crayons when he metted Rosie." Said Hazel.

"Nah, Angelica toldid us he had a bad case of the love bug, I think that causes runny poop too." Said Phil.

In another part of the library, Bob was holding Tommy tight, as they weren't interested in his escaping, while Mike secretly snuck around, pretending to be a Library of Congress inspector, as he snuck around behind the counters at the gift shop, and other places where money was kept, using his charm, to get the money out of the safes, and stuffing his pockets. Looking for a place to hide, Bob and Tommy walked through a door, only to find it was a janniter's closet, that didn't open from the inside. Frustrated, Bob started banging on the door, hoping somebody would let him out, but it was in a deserted part of the library at the time, so nobody heard him. Nor did they hear Tommy starting to cry, kick and punch the door too, to try to get it open.

"Shut up kid, shut up!" Bob yelled at Tommy, but the two-year-old kept on crying, hoping somebody would hear them, and get them out of there.

By this time, the adults noticed once again, the strollers were empty, so everybody went off, running through the library, looking for the kids. In one of the reading rooms, an elderly man who was looking at a book, nearly threw the book on the floor when a worm crawled across the page.

"Eeewww!" The elderly man cried.

"What? What is it?" A dark haired lady sitting across from him in the room asked.

"Worms, there's a worm, in my book!" The elderly man cried, as he got out of his chair and ran out of the reading room, to find more worms in the hallway.

"Oh my gosh, more worms! I'd better report this to the library staff, right away!" Cried the elderly man, as he went off to seek some help, only to slip on some mud on the floor.

"Yuck!" The elderly man cried, as Mrs. Nole came walking by with the adults, who were still looking for the kids.

"Oh my goodness! Look at this mess!" Didi cried, seeing the sight of the mud.

"I'm terribly sorry, I had no idea how messy our library was, we've never had worms and dirt in our facilities before." Said Mrs. Nole.

In the hallway leading up to the closet where Bob and Tommy were trapped, Chuckie had turned down that hallway, getting lost from the rest of the group.

"Bobby? Susie? Where is everyone!" Chuckie cried, as he approached the closet door, where he overheard Tommy crying.

"Tommy?" Chuckie asked, but Tommy must have not heard him, as he continued to cry.

" _Maybe it's not Tommy in there._ " Chuckie thought to himself, as he overheard a man's voice coming from behind the door as well.

"Quiet kid, and if you should ever cry again in my presence, you'll be sorry." Snapped Bob, as he shoved a pacifier into Tommy's mouth, quieting the toddler down, though Tommy didn't care much for pacifiers, but he'd wait to spit it out until they were rescued.

Chuckie was about to reach up and open the door, when a loud voice came over a P.A. system, nearly startling him half to death.

"We're sorry, but due to a recent worm and mud infestation at our facilities, the Library of Congress will have to be closed down until further notice. Please vacate the area immediately." Said the woman over the P.A. system.

"Oh no!" Cried Chuckie, as he turned around and ran back in the direction he came from originally, to run into his dad Chaz at the end of the hallway, thankful he had found Chuckie, as by this point, the adults had gathered up the rest of the toddlers, and Peter was phoning the limo service, to see if they could come an hour earlier than expected, as thanks to this infestation, their scheduled ninety minute tour, was only thirty minutes long.

Everybody left the library, except for the staff, some exterminaters who came in to inspect the place and clean it up, and Bob, Mike and Tommy. Mike was now frantically searching the library, so he could get Bob and Tommy, and get out of there. He was about to give up, when he overheard Bob scream from inside a nearby closet.

"Get me out of this damn thing." Bob cried, as he punched at the door again.

Overhearing this, Mike came to his rescue, opened the door, where Bob, carrying Tommy, still with a pacifier in his mouth, came out, and the three of them, rushed out of the library and back to their bomb shelter in a hurry. Once they had escaped the library and were outside, somewhere along the way between the Library of Congress and their bomb shelter, Tommy spit his pacifier out on to the ground, never to see it again.

Back outside the library, while waiting for their limo to arrive, Bobby, Susie and the toddlers, just all, looked at one another in disappointment.

"Sorry guys, I was sure my worm idea was going to work." Said Hazel.

"It's ok Hazel, you at least tried." Said Phil.

"Yeah, I guess book worms and people can't be in the library at the same time." Said Bobby.

"Of course not dork, because those weren't book worms. They were real worms." Said Derek.

"Real worms?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, a book worm isn't a real worm, a book worm is someone who reads a lot." Explained Derek, as he buried his head into his comic book.

"Well I guess that makes you a book worm then since you're always burying your head into comic books." Said Bobby.

"Whatever." Muttered Derek from inside his book.

"Wow I didn't know there were two types of worms, the kind that read books, and the kind that me and Phillip eat." Said Lil.

"Yeah kind of like there are two types of Dil." Said Chuckie.

"Oh yeah, the kind you eat, and the kind you don't." Said Lil.

"Yeah, and please, don't eat me." Said Dil.

No sooner had he said this, when their limo arrived, to pick everyone up and take them back to the hotel. They all piled in, and headed off.

"Have a good day, we'll see you tomorrow at National's Stadium for the big game." Called Hazel's dad to the rest of the crew in the limo, as it drove off, and Hazel's family, who was staying at a different hotel entirely, the Watergates Hotel, where Hazel and her parents walked to. On the way there though, Hazel, who was in a stroller at this point, spotted a pacifier on the ground. Curious about it, she picked it up, and stuffed it into her diaper.

" _Hmmm, I wonder if this binky belongs to Tommy? I'll ask the others about it the nextest time I see them._ " Hazel thought to herself, as she stuffed the pacifier into her diaper, and she and her parents returned to their hotel.

In the limo on the way back to their hotel, all of the adults were talking about Tommy, and trying to think of where he could have ended up. Overhearing their conversation, Derek peered out from behind his comic book, and made a comment.

"I know why sticky fingers went missing, it's because he's one gullable little kid." Said Derek.

"His name's not sticky fingers, his name is Tommy, and what's gullable mean anyway?" Bobby asked.

"It's what you and your little baby friends are, dork. Someone who's gullable will believe just about anything they hear, and in most cases, it leads to a world of trouble." Explained Derek.

" _Uh oh._ " Bobby thought to himself, as the limo pulled up in front of their hotel, and let everybody out.

"I'll be back to take you Taffy to the train station at around four this afternoon to pick up your friend Sandy and her kids." Said the limo driver to Taffy.

"Thank you sir." Said Taffy, as she waved to the limo driver and made her way into the hotel to catch up with the rest of the crew.

Once everybody had returned to the hotel, since they got back earlier than expected, and both, the adults and the kids were hot and exhausted, everybody went and settled down for a long afternoon nap, while Taffy and her band tried to get in a tiny rehearsal. Unfortunately, as a result of feeling hot and exhausted, not to mention, worried about Tommy's disappearance, as it had been four days, and he still hadn't turned up, the rehearsal didn't go well. Taffy's mind kept wandering, causing her to mess up on her guitar playing, messing up the band.

"Hey! Pay attention!" Snapped one of the band members.

"Sorry guys, I guess, I just, can't concentrate today. Besides, the limo will be here any minute to take me to the train station to pick up Sandy and her minis." Said Taffy, as she glanced down at her watch to see it was five minutes until four.

Taffy put up her guitar and headed outside to wait for the limo, while her band members headed up to their hotel room, to rest for a little bit. The limo arrived, and took Taffy to the train station, where she learned Sandy's train was running late. It arrived half an hour later, at four thirty, at which time, Sandy, Mary and Rosie got off, and met Taffy in the station.

"Taffy! How great to see you again." Said Sandy, giving Taffy a hug.

"Minis, do you remember Taffy?" Sandy asked.

"Yes, I do, hi." Said Mary, shaking Taffy's hand.

"Hey." Said Taffy, smiling down at Mary.

Rosie looked up at Taffy and smiled.

"Well, we'd better be going, right this way ladies." Said Taffy, as she led Sandy, Mary and Rosie out to the limo in front of the station. Rosie and Mary were overwhelmed by this, as neither one of them had ever ridden in a limo before, so this was pretty exciting.

As they drove back to the hotel, Taffy pointed out to Sandy and the girls some of the places they were passing by, and which ones they had visited so far while on their trip. Upon arriving at the hotel, they walked into the lobby to find that the Rugrats, their families, and Bobby and his family, along with Taffy's band members and Peter, had all awakened from their afternoon nap, and were down in the lobby, enjoying this little afternoon snack thing that the hotel provided on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons, other than the daily continental breakfast that was served every morning. Taffy led Sandy, Mary and Rosie around, and introduced them to everybody who they had not met yet, as they already knew Zack and his aunt Celeste, and they knew Peter, while Rosie knew most of the toddlers, and Sandy knew everybody from when she came to visit Taffy during her spring break from school, but Mary didn't know most of the people there, so she was glad to finally meet them.

No sooner was everybody getting aquainted with everyone, when Randy and Stu walked into the hotel, disappointed looks on their faces.

"So dear, how did it go?" Lucy asked, upon seeing her husband walk in.

"They never met with us. Apparently, according to the people at the Air and Space Museum, Mister Roach had a family emergency, and would have to push back our meeting to tomorrow evening." Said Randy.

"I let them know we'd be at National's Stadium at the big ball game. I don't mind relocating our meeting to there, as we'll be outside, in the perfect environment to truly demonstrate my Dummi Bears hot air balloon prototype." Said Stu.

"Any word about the whereabouts of Tommy Stu?" Betty asked.

"Nope, but seeing that our meeting got canceled, Randy and I headed over to the Police station, where we reported him missing. Apparently, while Taffy has confirmed with us that she's made a note to mention this to the people at every place we've visited this week, the idiots that run this capital, are too dumb to say something to the real Police." Said Stu.

"At least Stu and I had the decency to finally take matters into our own hands, and report it to the real Police ourselves. They say they'll keep their eyes pealed, and let us know if something should turn up." Said Randy.

While the adults went on talking with one another, Rosie approached the toddlers, where she was introduced to Bobby and Susie, the only two she didn't meet when she met everybody else back at Valentine's Day.

"It's nice to finally meet you Rosie." Said Susie with a smile, as she shook Rosie's hand.

"Thank you." Said Rosie, as she shook Susie's hand, and looked around at the toddlers, to notice that someone was missing.

"Hey, where's Tommy you guys?" Rosie asked.

Everybody stared back at her in silence, frowns on their faces.

"Uh oh, something's wrong, I know it. Where is Tommy?" Rosie asked again, now in a panicked voice.

Before Bobby, Susie, or any of the toddlers could respond, a news report came on a television that was in the lobby, showing Tommy's picture.

"Oh my gosh you guys, Tommy! He's on the TV! Look!" Exclaimed Rosie, as she pointed to the television with the news report on it, Bobby, Susie and the other toddlers, all turning their attention to the television screen where Rosie was pointing.

"And in recent news, our nation's capital has been undergoing some interesting mysteries over the last week. First, the mysterious disappearance of a young toddler by the name of Tommy Pickles. He went mysteriously missing at the International Spy Museum back at the beginning of the week, and Police and security guards at several locations are still searching for this missing child. If he should turn up in your neighborhood, please notify your local Police immediately. Along with Tommy's disappearance though, has also gone a huge sum of money from several popular tourist attractions in our nation's capital over the last week as well. Everywhere from the International Spy Museum, to The National Zoo, Museum of Natural History, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Library of Congress. And recently, The Library of Congress has been closed down as a result of a recent worm and mud infestation. We have no idea if or when it will be reopened to the public again for tours, that, has yet to be determined. On top of all of this, officials at the National Zoo found an orangutan costume inside of the orangutan house, and saw a day's worth of fruit eaten in one sitting on August 7, and several tourests spotted what they seem to call a weir orangutan while touring the zoo that very same day." Explained a female news ankeror on the television.

"His body looked like an orangutan, and his head looked like that of a small boy with dark purple hair, it was so scary of a sight, I ran away before I could take a picture!" Explained a tourist.

Everybody gasp at the sound of this news. Back on the television…

"And in sports, famous baseball player Bucky Majors plans to announce his retirement from baseball at tomorrow night's game." Said a male news ankeror, as the picture turned to Bucky Majors, with his announcement.

"I quit playing for the Grizleys at the beginning of this season, as I was recovering from Pnewmonia at the time, only playing when a substitute was needed, but tomorrow night, I will be filling in for one of the players on the Nationals, as we go up against the Braves at National's Stadium in Washington D.C. and I make it, my final game, of baseball." Explained Bucky Majors on the television.

"And in entertainment news, the upcoming band, Taffy and the Salt Waters will be starting their big tour after the big game tomorrow night at Nationals Stadium. Several flyers promoting her tour have been handed out at several locations around the nation's capital, and both, the game and the opening tour concert have been sold out, making over two-million-dollars in ticket sales at the box office. It is also been confirmed that famous children's artist, Sherry Berry, will be appearing tomorrow evening to open up for Taffy and the Salt Waters, and Sherry has something to say about this." Continued the male ankeror on the television, as the camera cut to a picture of Sherry Berry, talking with reporters.

"I have known Taffy ever since she was a little girl, and I am honored, to be performing at her big tour premier tomorrow." Said Sherry Berry.

Overhearing this on the news, Taffy turned her gaze away from the television, back to her friend Sandy, who was across from her at the table where they were sitting in the lobby, a frown on Taffy's face.

"Something wrong?" Sandy asked.

"I don't know if I can go through with this. I mean, with being so worried about Tommy, and worried for his family and all of our friends, my heart, just, isn't feeling it." Said Taffy with a sigh.

"But Taffy, you've come this far, I'm upset about Tommy too, but you can't give up now." Said Sandy.

Just then, the news returned after a commercial break, with more coverage.

"Later on this evening, Taffy and her band will be dining with the President at the White House, as President Obama presents Taffy with a special award for her outstanding achievement so far, and to wish her luck on her big tour. We'll have more on the story of Taffy and her tour as things progress, but if money continues to disappear from the various tourist attractions around the area, will it be a matter of time, until America, is destroyed?" Said the female news ankeror.

"And now, here's Homohi to talk about the recent news of the monsoon that's on its way to Japan." Continued the female news ankeror, as the picture changed to show Tokyo Japan, and some fearce winds near the area, blowing stuff around, and a male reporter started talking about the monsoon, completely taking the kids attention away from the news, as they were no longer talking about the events that were taking place in Washington D.C. anymore.

Overhearing the news on the television, as well as Taffy possibly canceling her tour, this perked Bobby to get the others attention.

"Guys, this is getting serious! If Tommy isn't found tomorrow, Taffy's tour might get canceled!" Said Bobby.

"And that's not the only thing going on here you guys, did you notice how they said money went disappearing from all of the places we've been too also?" Zack asked.

"Yeah? So?" Chuckie asked irritably, as he wasn't sure what money had to do with Tommy.

"Guys, I think everyone is on to something here." Said Bobby.

"What do you mean Bobby?" Phil asked.

"I have a feeling that Bob and Mike are involved in all of this, all the way." Said Bobby.

"Who are Bob and Mike?" Rosie asked.

"The people who lefted a ransom note in the rejecting pool at Jefferson's Memory this morning. We founded it, and tried to get Tommy back this afternoon at the Library of Congress, but I guess wormies are no substitute for library cards, or two-million dollars." Said Zack with a sigh.

"But what makes you think they've been at all of the places we've been anyway?" Lil asked.

"Well, think about it you guys, money has gone missing from every place we've been to this week, and the description of that weir orangutan, doesn't the description of its head, sound a lot like Tommy's?" Bobby asked.

"So I wasn't making it up then." Said Chuckie.

"What do you mean Chuckie?" Bobby asked.

"Guys, I've runned into Tommy at every place we've been. He was that baby orangutan we were helping, that was no real orangutan at all. And when I heardid him cry, Reptar, from inside the orangutan house, it was him, but our mommies and daddies gotted there to take us back here before we could rescue him. And then, the nextest day at that place with all of the human bones, it was Tommy who founded the hand, but those kidnappers stopped him, so he threw it to me. And then, remember? I sawed Tommy behind that statue of that George guy, but again, those kidnappers gotted him too quickly, before me or Tommy could meet up. And later, when we were at the library, I heardid him crying behind a door, but before I could open the door, a loud scary lady came over this speaker thing, making us leave cuz of the wormies. Guys, Tommy and the kidnappers are following us." Said Chuckie.

"So you really did see Tommy at all of the places we went. I'm sorry I didn't believe you before then." Said Zack.

"It's ok Zack, I forgive you." Said Chuckie, as the two of them gave one another a hug.

"So Bobby, after hearing what Chuckie just concluded, do you think we'll run into Tommy at that baseball game and concert tomorrow?" Rosie asked.

"Well, if they're continuing to follow us to every place we've been, then yes, there's a good chance they'll be at that game tomorrow. And for our sake, we'd better hope they'll be there, as we leave to go home the day after tomorrow, so tomorrow is it you guys. When at that baseball game, we need to join together, and do whatever it takes, to get Tommy back, and see if we can't also save America as well." Said Bobby.

"I'm with you all the way." Said Rosie, as she went up to Bobby and shook his hand.

"Me too." Said Susie.

"I'm in, if Phillip agrees to be my partner." Said Lil.

"Come on Lillian, you know we'll always be partners, we're twins after all." Said Phil.

"No, you'd rather spend time with Hazel." Snapped Lil.

"Come on Lil, I'm really getting tired of your attitude, and besides, Hazel's not here right now. She's at some place called Watergates, why someone would build a gate out of water is beyond me, as I don't think that works very well." Said Phil.

"Well Hazel can go with Jesse then, cuz I'm tired of being Jesse's partner, I want my brother back." Shouted Lil.

This upset Jesse, causing him to collapse to the floor and start crying.

"Awe, don't cry Jesse." Said Kimi, going over and putting a comforting hand on Jesse's shoulder.

"I can't help it Kimi, Lil hurted my feelings, and Tommy is gone." Said Jesse through his sobs."Yeah, I miss Tommy too." Cried Rosie, as she went up to Dil to give him a hug, only to have Dil back away.

"Don't look at me Rosie, Tommy toldid me if I gotted too close to you, I'd get sick, after all, he's been sick every single time he's been with you." Said Dil.

This only made Rosie cry louder, as she never meant for Tommy to get sick when he was around her, it always happened.

"That's not true Dil, you take that back." Shouted Rosie through her sobs.

"I don't know, who wants to spend time with a guy who believes aliums exist?" Zack asked.

"Hey! You stop talking to my bestest friends brother like that Zack." Snapped Chuckie.

At this point, all of the toddlers were back to quarreling, and crying, getting on Bobby and Susie's last nerves. To get away from the fighting, Susie went off and found Angelica at a nearby table, stuffing her face with the last of the cookies that were being served at the afternoon snacking party provided by the hotel.

"Hey! Don't take all of those cookies for yourself, save some for us." Snapped Susie, but it was too late, Angelica put the last cookie on the plate into her mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it quickly, before responding.

"No! And once I'm President, nobody gets any cookies except me, got it?" Griped Angelica.

"Angelica? Would you please, just, give up the whole becoming President thing? You're never gonna become President, and it's getting on my last nerve! Why don't you do something important, like help us find Tommy? You haven't helped once in the entire time we've been here ever since he went missing." Shouted Susie.

"Maybe I don't want that dumb baby to be found. With him out of the way, I can boss the babies around, and Tommy won't try to stop me." Said Angelica.

"Oh yeah? Well you forgot that Bobby and I are here, and we're not gonna let you push the other babies around either, right guys?" Susie asked, but the other toddlers were all too busy quarreling with one another to even notice.

"See? They're too dumb to care." Said Angelica, as she stuck her tongue out at Susie, and walked off.

Getting fed up with listening to Susie and Angelica's quarreling, and the toddlers quarreling, Bobby went over to where Mary and a hand full of the adults were gathered at this point, trying to pick out something for dinner, which from the look and sound of it, this decision was going about as well as keeping the little ones in line.

"I'm not all that up for tye food again tonight, the stuff we had the other night gave me heartburn." Said Didi.

"And I don't want pizza, I'm sick of pizza." Snapped Dana.

"Oh come on everybody, pizza is awesome! Could eat that stuff everyday!" Said Betty.

"There's a nice seafood place down the street, anyone interested?" Kira asked.

"No, Zack and I went there the other night, and he hardly touched his food. It's thanks to this I'm practically out of yogurt and stars that I picked up at the mini market down the street." Said Celeste.

"So, what are we gonna eat then?" Lucy asked.

"Well I heard Martha and Derek left to pick up some pizza for their family, I'm sure we can figure out something." Said Howard D.

Just as Howard said this, Sandy, Taffy and her band, all left the hotel in the limo to head to the Whitehouse for their dinner with the President, and Sandy left Didi with an overnight bag for Mary and Rosie, as they would be spending the night in Stu and Didi's suite, since she wasn't sure what time they would be getting back from this thing, as there was a rumor going around that they'd get to spend a night at the Whitehouse as well, and Taffy was only allowed to bring one guest along with her band, so she asked Sandy to accompany her to this dinner, since they were, best childhood friends, and Sandy made the effort to come all this way to see Taffy off on her tour, while Bratanica was too busy working at Whacky Burger to care.

"By the time you figure out anything, it will be midnight, and keep it down I'm trying to have an important conversation with Jonathan over here." Shouted Charlotte to the other adults, her hand covering the mouth piece on her cell phone at this point, before she turned around, removed her hand from the mouth piece, and continued talking with Jonathan, as she walked away from the group, and got on to the elevator to head back upstairs to her room, where she'd hopefully, get some peace and quiet to get some work done.

Seeing Charlotte walk into the elevator, Bobby decided to follow her in there, hoping he too, could get some peace and quiet, only to find out he'd soon be wrong. Once he and Charlotte got up to their level where their suites were, Charlotte went into her suite, while Bobby went into his, only to be greeted by more arguing, this time, it was between his father and sister.

"Dad, I'm like, eighteen-years-old, I don't need adult supervision!" Kelly shouted.

"And I don't want my only daughter, spending the night, alone, with the king of the Confederacy!" Snapped Howard G.

"What do you think we're gonna do anyway? Get me pregnant or something? Since it's our last night in the hotel, Peter agreed to order a movie on Pay-Per-View for us to watch." Said Kelly.

"Well I'm sorry Kelly, your mother and I don't approve of you dating this, Peter guy." Said Howard G.

"Dad." Griped Kelly.

By this time, Bobby couldn't take it anymore, so he snuck past his arguing father and sister, over to a chair in the corner of the room, where he pulled out his Captain Squash video game, and got lost in the game, hoping to drown out the constant fighting he had been witnessing for over the last hour, but while playing the game, all he could think about was the following.

" _Taffy might cancel her tour, Phil and Lil can't get along, Rosie and Jesse are upset, nobody wants to play with Dil, Susie and Angelica are arguing, our families can't decide on what food to eat for dinner, and now, my dad and sister are fighting over the king of the Confederacy? That's it, I must find Tommy tomorrow, before America gets destroyed, and we all, go to war!_ " Bobby thought to himself, as he put his video game down, and covered his ears, to block out the constant shouting of his dad and sister, who just, wouldn't shut up.

And this, ends chapter 6. So, what will happen at National's Stadium? Will Tommy get found and will everybody make peace? We'll find out, in the next chapter, so please, do stay tuned!


	7. It's 1, 2, 3 Strikes You're Out

Author's Note: I should warn you, some very dark stuff happens in this chapter, so if you're curling up to read this right before going to sleep, I advise you to stop, and read this when you're freshly awake, don't wish for you to get any nightmares. And if I've caused anybody to get any nightmares from reading this chapter, I sincerely apologize in advance. Now, let's get on, with the next chapter!

Chapter 7, It's 1, 2, 3 Strikes You're Out

The early morning of August 10, 2014…

Tommy POV

Up to this point, I had been having a miserable time with these Bob and Mike people. It was even worser than the lastest time they tooked me away. Maybe it's because the firstest time they tooked me away, I was only with these peoples for a few hours? Point is, I was miserable, and I had enough of being their little distracter, especially after what I founded out yesterday night after we returned to our awful home from the library. I was sitting over on my uncomfortable pile of newspapers they figured would make a perfect bed for me, even though it was everything but perfect, it was quite uncomfortable, when I overheard them having this conversation over on their cots.

"Well, so far so good, just need to hit National's Stadium tomorrow, and we'll have just enough money to hand over to the guards of the Whitehouse come Monday to send them off on a trip to Hawaii so we can break in there, kill the President, and take over the country." Said Mike with an evil smile on his face, as he held a shoebox in his lap full of money.

"Awesome! Awesome stuff! I like it." Said Bob approvingly, liking this plan.

"But wait, what about the kid?" Mike asked.

"Oh, baby thump? No worries, I have a plan to get rid of him." Said Bob, as he lay down to take a nap.

Mike carefully got out of his cot, placed the shoebox back under the bed, then curled up in his bed to take a nap, since there was nothing left to do.

After hearing all of this though, I realized that these two guys were up to no good, and that I needed to find a way out of there, before they did something to me that I'd regret. Not to mention, I was hungry, as I hadn't had a bite to eat in over a day, thirsty, as the last thing I had to drink was some water from that rejecting pool at Jefferson's Memory earlier that day, and I was really tired from not getting much sleep the last few days. Sure I tooked nappies, but they weren't all that restful or comfortable, as I had to sleep on an old pile of newspapers, near a window where either bright sunlight or the moonlight at night was streaming in, keeping me awake. I knew that if I stayed with these guys for too much longer, something bad was going to happen, so once nighttime fell, and those peoples were asleep, I quietly snuck off of my newspaper bed, and started putting my plan into action.

First, remembering where the shoebox was, I knew that this money didn't belong to these guys, they stole it from all of those places we went. Not only that, but they tricked me into helping them, by telling me they were out to save America. You know what? They're not out to save America at all, they're out to destroy it, and it was up to me, to save it, but to do that, I'd need to get all of the money they tooked, and put it somewhere safe where they couldn't get it. So I quietly crawled over to Mike's cot, where I knew the shoebox of all of the moneys they had collected at this point was kept. I pulled the box out from beneath the bed, opened it up, took all of the money out, and started stuffing my shorts pockets full with the stuff. Then, once the shoebox was empty, I tooked out my trusty screwdriver, and went over to the metal door that led in and out of this uncomfortable place. I started pushing on the door, just to see if I could get myself out, but it was too heavy for me, or, perhaps it was locked. Using my plastic screwdriver, I reached up and stuck it into the lock, hoping to get somewhere. Little did I know what was about to happen next. My screwdriver, somehow gotted stucked in the lock. As I tried to pry it loose, it broked in half, leaving half of it lodged in the lock, the other half, the handle end, was in my hand. Upset by this, I thrust the end that was in my hand back into my shorts pocket, collapsed to the floor and started crying. I felt pretty upset, helpless, hopeless, not to mention, hungry, thirsty and exhausted, and I just, wanted it to be all over.

I didn't care what Bob had toldid me back in that closet at the library. Maybe he said the nextest time I cried, I'd be sorry, but really, how sorry would I be? In the end, I was hoping they'd be the ones sorry. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and I was about to have a price to pay that I was going to regret.

Not long after I started crying, Bob and Mike awoke, and boy were they not happy.

"Shut up kid, shut up! Can't you see we're sleeping here?" Bob yelled.

Of course, I didn't stop. Hopefully, if I kept crying long enough, they'd get so sick of me, that they'd toss me out, and sure, this would leave me, lost in our natie's capital, but I didn't care. Eventually, I'd find my family, somehow. Unfortunately, that's not what they did at all. Rather, they did something much worser.

"Well, since you're not gonna stop kid, you know what you deserve? A spanking!" Bob shouted, as he ran over towards me.

Now I had no idea what a spanking was, as I had never heardid that word in my entire life, not even from my own mommy and daddy, but I would soon find out what it was, and, it's nothing good. Bob proceeded to pull up my shirt, pull down my pants, and started hitting my behind really hard. It hurted so bad, it only caused me to cry even louder, this time, causing Mike to wake up and come see what was going on.

"What are you doing?" Mike asked.

"Giving this kid a spanking, cuz he just, won't shut up, and I've had enough of it, but apparently, it's not working!" Bob screamed.

"That's cuz you're doing it all wrong Bob, here, I'll do to the kid what my father use to do to me. Yep that's right, come on Bob, let's pound the stuffing out of him." Said Mike.

This only sounded even worser. I knew I was full of stuffing, or at least that's what Angelica made me think when I gotted my firstest cut a while back, little did I know what was about to happen to me. The nextest thing I knew, Bob and Mike were treating me no better than a bowling ball. Hitting me hard in places all over my body, slamming me against the hard floor and walls of the place, which felt a lot like the sidewalks outside, and only making the pain even worser.

"What are we gonna do Mikey? What are we gonna do?" Bob asked.

"What we should have done a long time ago, back when he threw our rubies into the toilet." Said Mike, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun.

I knew this couldn't be good, as Mike aimed the gun right at me, pulled the trigger, and as quickly as I could, I jumped into the cooler which was open at this point, but that wasn't enough. Mike shot at my left shoulder, sending a painful bullet into my shoulder, leaving a huge whole in the blue shirt I've worn forever, causing blood to come out, drenching my shirt. I was so mad at this point, I reached in with my hands and started throwing all of the ice on to the floor. Bob and Mike ran all over the small room, slipping on the pieces of ice, falling down. I was hoping they would give up, but they were two of the toughest growed ups I ever metted, as well as the meanest. I think they even top Coco in this case, at this moment, I'd do anything to just, be locked away with my friends and Reptar. At least I was with my friends, this time, I was all alone, and it was up to me, to get out of their clutches, which so far, wasn't going very well.

"You'd better do better than that kid." Griped Mike.

"Yeah, don't think ice will make us quit." Said Bob, as the two guys started to make their way up from the ground.

Then, I sawed Mike glance over at the empty shoebox.

"Hey! Where did our money go?" Mike asked.

"I bet ya the kid took it." Said Bob.

"You know what? I bet you're right." Said Mike.

Then, Mike turndid to me, an angry expression on his face.

"Hey kid, give me back our money, and we'll stop hurting you." Said Mike in an angry tone of voice.

By this time, I had made my way over to the metal door where half of my screwdriver was lodged in the lock. Now you all know that I said my firstest word, Reptar, to the growed ups over a month ago, but I guess you can't figure out what my second word was. It's thanks to Chuckie I learndid this one, and no, Bob and Mike weren't the firstest peoples to hear me say it, I did say it before now, but that story is for another day, provided I made it out of here alive.

"No!" I shouted, as I banged my right fist hard against the metal door.

It hurted, but as a result of hitting it so hard, I gotted the piece of my plastic screwdriver that was lodged in the lock loose, causing it to fall to the floor. I quickly picked it up and threw it into my pocket with the other half, hopefully, if I ever made it out of here and founded my family again, I'd get Susie to help me fix it. After all, she's Doctor Susie, always thinking of the toys first.

"I'm gonna say it, one more time. Give us back our money kid." Snapped Mike.

"No!" I shouted.

Just then, Bob and Mike came up to me, and Mike hit the back of my right hand hard with a rock, causing it to get cutted, not that I wasn't covered with booboos already. I had several painful booboos up and down my arms and legs, all over my back from when they gave me that spanking, and they slapped me hard on my face several times too, leaving several booboos on my cheeks and forehead, and even hitting me in the eye.

"Well Mikey, there's only one thing left to do." Said Bob.

"What?" Mike asked.

Just then, Bob picked me up, and slammed me hard against the metal door, hitting my head hard against it, at which time, the whole world went black.

End of Tommy POV

Bob and Mike had knocked Tommy out cold at this point, on top of physically abusing him, which included several bruises all over his body, a bullet wound on his left shoulder, a cut on his right hand, and a black eye. Not convinced that all of this damage would do any good, Bob picked up the only thing remaining in the cooler at this point, as all of the ice was nearly destroyed, thanks to Tommy, a full bottle of tequila.

"There's one sure way to get rid of this kid." Said Bob, opening up the bottle.

"Really? What is that?" Mike asked.

"Do to him what my father did to himself before he died." Said Bob, as he pried open Tommy's mouth, and poured a bottle of Taquila down his throat.

"Now what do we do?" Mike asked, as Bob removed the empty bottle from Tommy's mouth, and threw it into the trash, surprised that the contents of that bottle didn't choke him to death, all because the kid was knocked out.

"Come with me." Said Bob, as he and Mike left their uncomfortable bomb shelter, carrying the unconscious Tommy, as they ran all the way to National's Stadium, where they found a tall balcony on the outskirts of the stadium, usually reserved for very important guests attending games there, like if the President or the pope were coming. They went up the steps leading to this small balcony, where they found a gate, that unfortunately, none of their keys worked on. So quickly thinking, Mike grabbed Tommy, and threw him hard on to the floor of the balcony, near the railing that looked out over the field, causing him to land hard on his back, the kid, still unconscious at this point.

"Come on Bob, let's get out of here." Said Mike.

"But what about our money?" Bob asked.

"Want everybody to hear?" Hissed Mike softly into Bob's ear.

"There's nobody here yet." Whispered Bob.

"Wait, I've got an idea. We'll disguise ourselves as the ticket collecters at the game, and we'll at least get the two-million dollars in box office ticket sales, or at least that's what I read in a newspaper last night." Said Mike.

"Great idea! And then, we'll stay for the game, right?" Bob asked.

"No way am I sticking around to watch some stupid baseball game." Said Mike.

"How could you hate America's favorite pass time?" Bob asked.

"I just do, ok?" Snapped Mike.

"Although, isn't tonight the premier of that stupid tour by that crappy singer Taffy and her salty band?" Bob asked.

"Ah yes, and that woman thinks she can sing, and then there's that green haired childish punk, Sherry Berry. Musicians make me sick, all they have to do is sing and make money, they think they're so smart, but wait a second, Bob, you've given me an idea!" Said Mike with a chuckle, as they left the stadium.

"What?" Bob asked, as they made their way to the costume shop as the sun was rising in the sky, and the day was really getting started in our nation's capital, to see if they could sneak out two costumes that would give them the appearance of ticket collecters before the big game that evening.

"We'll see that this stupid tour doesn't happen. That's right, just like what happened with John Lennon, Sherry Berry and Taffy are about to say their last words and eat their last meal this evening. We shoot them tonight at the concert, we get all of the money, and then, we kill the President on Monday, taking over the country! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Scoffed Mike, as they approached the door of the costume shop, which hadn't opened yet.

"Love the plan, just, love it! Now, to get those costumes." Said Bob.

"Damn it! The place is still closed, and I'm getting tired." Griped Mike.

"No worries, we'll sit down on a nearby bench, and as soon as they open in a couple of hours, we'll continue with the plan." Said Bob, as the two criminals found a nearby bench, rested their heads on to one another, and took a snooze.

As for the Rugrats and their families, and Bobby Generic and his family, since that night was going to be a very jam packed evening with the baseball game and concert, and everybody was quite exhausted from a long week of tours, and being worried about Tommy, who still hadn't been found at this point, the families decided to spend a quiet day at the hotel, watching TV shows and movies on the video on demand service offered via room service at the hotel, and finish up the food they had bought in the refridgerator, as they didn't wish for the stuff to go bad, and knew they couldn't take the food with them on the airplane the next day. As for Hazel and her family, they went on a tour of the Air and Space Museum that morning, then went back to their hotel that afternoon to take a nap, and at around 6:30 PM, they took a taxi cab to National's Stadium, where they got in line, gave their tickets to the ticket people, unknowing to them that they were really criminals, as Bob and Mike did manage to sneak costumes out of the costume shop, then, made their way back to the stadium at around the time the gates opened up at 5 that afternoon, and put their plan into action, as they perched themselves into the ticket collecting booth, tricking the other staff working there, that the people were already collecting everybody's tickets.

As for the Rugrats and Generics, everybody was doing great at getting ready to go, except poor Didi had spent more or less, the entire day in bed, as she hardly got any sleep on this entire trip. When she hadn't made an appearance by about 4:30, and they had to leave in an hour for the game, Stu went up to the room to wake her, which was more or less deserted, as everybody else was down in Peter's room, watching Runaway Reptar, the same movie everybody saw a while back at the drive in, only now, it was out on DVD and available on the On Demand Service.

"Come on Deed, wake up sweetheart, we need to leave here in an hour." Said Stu, as he shook his wife awake.

"What time is it?" Didi asked sleepily, as she rubbed her eyes, sat up, and put on her glasses.

"It's four thirty." Stu replied.

"But the game isn't until seven." Didi replied, as she slumped back on the pillows, letting out a sigh.

"Yes, but remember what Taffy told us at breakfast? Oh, that's right, you didn't come to breakfast. She has to be there early at five thirty for a sound check, and the limo is only driving to the stadium twice, once to drop us all off at five thirty, and they're not returning until the concert is over, to bring us all back to the hotel, and take Taffy and her band off to the next place on their tour, somewhere in New Jersey." Said Stu.

"Oh, all right, I'll grab a shower and get ready to go. Are the kids ready to go?" Didi asked.

"Don't worry Deed I got Dil's diaper bag all ready to go and he's downstairs with Peter, watching a Reptar movie and waiting with everybody else until it's time for us to leave." Said Stu.

"Wow, you're more on top of things today than I am." Said Didi, as she got out of bed and rushed off to the bathroom to take her shower.

"I guess cuz I'm really excited about tonight. Mister Roach from the Air and Space Museum will be meeting with Randy and I at the big game, where I'll be presenting my Dummi Bear hot air balloon prototype." Said Stu, as Didi disappeared through the bathroom door.

"Yes dear, I know, I believe you've told me this, like, five times already." Said Didi, as she closed the bathroom door and rushed around to get ready.

An hour later, at 5:30 PM, the limo arrived outside of the hotel, picked everybody up, and took them to National's Stadium, where they got in line, handed over their tickets, and found their seats in the bleachers. Taffy and her band, disappeared to go have their sound check done, where they ran into Sherry Berry, who had just finished up her sound check, and asked her if she'd like to join everybody for the big game. She accepted, and Sherry joined the group, sitting in the seat where Tommy would have sat, had he been with them, sitting next to Stu and Didi, and seeing that neither Sherry or Didi was all that interested in the game, they spent the better part of the game, talking with one another.

At around 6:30 PM, after Hazel and her family had turned in their tickets, they went off looking for seats, when Betty called their names, so they went over to where all of the families were gathered, and joined the Rugrats and Generics for the game, which started half an hour later.

Tommy POV

Later, I waked up to lots of noise and and sunlight in my eyes. Upon waking up, I noticed I wasn't in that horrible place anymore, but wasn't sure where I was. My head was in a great deal of pain, as well as the rest of my body, reminding me of what happened to me earlier, how those Bob and Mike peoples hurted me. Slowly, I sat up, the pain only getting worser, but I didn't care. I had to figure out where I was and get out of there fast. Looking around, I noticed I was in some empty set of bleachers, on a balcony place high above the ground. Peering over the fence, I looked down to see a baseball game going on. Now I had been to one of these before with my daddy and grandpa a while back, only thing different, is that there was no bear at this one like there was at the lastest one, but who cared. I needed to go potty fast, so tried to stand up, only the pain was so bad, I collapsed back down to the ground.

Realizing I was in too much pain to walk, I crawled quickly over to a gate. Thinking fast, I reached into my pocket for my screwdriver, only then remembering that it gotted broked, and was now in two pieces. Not wishing to break it even more, I just sat there on the ground of the balcony, as I started to cry, hoping someone would hear me. Sadly, nobody did, as there was too much noise and the game going on, and as far as the having to go potty part, I eventually, couldn't hold it no longer, and had a accident in my pants. Feeling embarrassed, weak, and in a great deal of pain, I lay back down on the ground, as the game continued on around me. I started wishfully thinking, hoping somebody would come rescue me. I didn't care if it was Reptar, or my mommy, or Chuckie or even Rosie, just, somebody I knew, as I lay down and closed my eyes.

End of Tommy POV

Back at the public bleachers, Hazel had recently finished telling all of the other toddlers about her morning at the Air and Space Museum.

"Wow! What an interesting trip!" Said Rosie.

"Yeah! It was lots of fun! I'm sorry you weren't there." Said Hazel.

In another part of the same bleachers, Hazel's parents were telling Mary and the other adults about the tour they had taken that morning, when Stu spoke up.

"Wow! That tour of the Air and Space Museum sounds like fun! Sandy, do you think we could come back here some other time and take a tour of it?" Mary asked.

"I don't see why not, that sounds like fun!" Said Sandy.

"Oh my gosh, Randy! We need to head over to the consession stand, Mister Roach said he'd be here at eight o'clock with my balloon for the demonstration." Said Stu.

"Uh, ok then." Said Randy.

"And while you guys are at it, why don't you take the kids down and get everybody something to eat." Suggested Lucy.

"Good plan. Derek, mind coming and helping out?" Stu asked.

"Oh, do I have to help out the dork and his sticky fingered friends?" Muttered Derek in an irritated tone.

"Yes son, we could really use your help, as I'd really like to stay here and watch the rest of the game." Said Howard G.

"Oh all right dad, fine." Said Derek reluctantly, as he, Stu, Randy, Bobby, Angelica, Susie, Chuckie, Kimi, Jesse, Phil, Lil, Hazel, Rosie, Mary, Zack and Dil all went down to the consession stand.

Unknown by anybody, Peter, Kelly, and Sandy also went down there, to pick up some food for the rest of the adults, as everybody was interested in splitting a large order of popcorn chicken and curly fries, so they picked up that order, and took it back to the bleachers, while Randy, Stu and the kids all sat down at a picnic table down in the area, with orders of hamburgers and hotdogs for everybody.

As the kids ate their food, Chuckie spotted something off in the distance.

"What is it Chuckie?" Kimi asked, noticing her brother was staring up at something.

"Guys, I think I might see Tommy up on top of that balcony place over there." Said Chuckie.

"Really? Let me take a look." Said Zack, as he pulled out his fold up telescope from his shorts pocket, unfolded it and had a look towards where Chuckie was pointing.

"Oh my gosh Chuckie, you're right! And guys, it doesn't look good." Said Zack, as he put his telescope down, and turned his attention back towards the others.

"What is it Zack?" Bobby asked.

"Uh, you'll see when we get closer." Said Zack, as he took the last bite of his hotdog.

"But guys, we've gots to hurry before those Bob and Mike peoples take him away again." Cried Chuckie.

"But how?" Phil asked.

"Yeah, he's way high up." Added Lil.

Before another word was spoken, Mister Roach, a tall muscular man with dark hair and a beard came up to the table and tapped Randy on the shoulder.

"Are you Mister Pickles?" Mister Roach asked.

Randy turned to where the voice was coming from.

"Uh, um, no, I'm Randy Carmichael. Mister Pickles is sitting directly to my left." Said Randy, who pointed over to his left, to where Stu was sitting.

"Mister Pickles, I'm Mister Roach, from the Air and Space Museum." Said Mister Roach, shaking Stu's hand.

"Oh, hello there, I've been expecting you." Said Stu.

"Yes, so, are you the brilliant inventer of the hot air balloon we plan to be featuring in this year'sGracy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?" Mister Roach asked, as he led Randy and Stu over to where he had placed the Dummi Bears hot air balloon.

"Yes sir, and if you don't mind my doing so, I'd like to give you a small demonstration of what this balloon, which when blown up, will look like a full blown statue of Jelly Bear, can do." Said Stu, as he pulled a remote control out of his pocket.

"Using the latest and greatest technology, this hot air balloon is remote controlled, I can blow up the balloon with hot air, raise it, and lower it, with the power of this remote." Said Stu, as he started hitting buttons on the remote.

He pressed one button and the balloon filled up with hot air. Then, he went to make it go up into the air, only this failed to work, because as usual, he wired together the internal workings of the remote with paper clips and rubber bands, similarly to how he built his giant Reptar robot for EuroReptarLand practically a year ago now. You'd think the guy would eventually learn, but apparently not.

"Work! QWork! Go up into the air!" Stu yelled in frustration at the hot air balloon, as he kept hitting buttons on his remote control, without much luck.

Meanwhile, back over at the picnic table, Derek and Mary were engrossed in watching the game through pairs of binoculars they had brought down with them from their seats, while Bobby and the toddlers, were trying to figure out a way to get up to where Tommy was on the balcony, so they could rescue him. As the Dummi Bears hot air balloon inflated, Rosie was the first one to spot it.

"I've got an idea you guys, come on!" Shouted Rosie excitedly, as she jumped down from her seat at the picnic table, and ran over to the balloon.

"What is it Rosie?" Zack asked, as he and the other toddlers caught up to her.

"Oh wow, this is an excellent idea!" Said Kimi, as she spotted the balloon where Rosie was pointing.

"Yep Kimi, this balloon will go up into the air, and take us right up to Tommy. Come on everybody, get inside the basket." Said Rosie, as she climbed inside, followed by Kimi, then Bobby, then Jesse, then Hazel, then Phil and Lil, then Susie, then, to everybody's surprise, Angelica climbed inside after Susie.

"You? Wanna help us rescue Tommy? That's a first." Said Susie with a laugh.

"Who said anything about me rescuing mellon head. I'm only going for the ride, me and Cynthia are bored." Said Angelica, as she sat down near the edge of the basket, Susie, joining her.

The last two to get into the balloon were Dil and Chuckie.

"Well come on drool boy and Finster, are you coming or not?" Snapped Angelica.

Taking a deep breath, Chuckie climbed into the balloon, with Dil toddling in after him.

"Ok, we're all inside the balloon. Now, before we start this mission, I know we haven't all exactly been getting along lately, but right now, Tommy is in trouble, and needs our help. So I'd really appreciate it, if you all would just, put aside your differences and work together, as it's the only way we're going to get Tommy back. Do you all understand?" Bobby asked, as all of the toddlers turned towards him, and gave him a nod, not making eye contact with one another, in particular, Jesse, Phil, Lil, and Hazel.

"So how do we make the balloon go?" Jesse asked.

Just then, Dil spied a panel on one side of the basket, with several buttons on it, next to a knob and two ropes.

"Let's try this." Said Dil, as he went over to the panel, and hit a big green button in the middle.

Upon hitting this button, the balloon started to rise up into the air.

Noticing this, Stu looked up to see his balloon was heading off, now with the kids inside.

"Oh no! The kids! They're getting away! Come on, work! Bring the balloon back down. AAAHHH!" Yelled Stu at the top of his lungs, as he kept hitting buttons on the remote, only for it to fail, as the balloon continued to rise into the sky, floating away from him, to where he could no longer reach up to catch it. Frustrated, Stu sat down on a nearby picnic bench, where Randy and Mister Roach had gathered, as they sat there in silence, and watched more of the game, which was now up to the sixth inning.

Tommy POV

There I was, continuing to watch this game, as I sat there on this balcony, in pain. Wanting to get a closer look, I stood up at the railing, and held on to the fence with all of my might, since it seemed it hurt just to make the simplest movements of my body. I could no longer stand on my own without holding on to something. At that moment, I was hoping somebody would see me and rescue me. Little did I know that my wish was about to come true, but it wasn't no Reptar coming to rescue me, to my surprise, I saw Jelly Bear from the Dummi Bears in the sky, headed my way.

" _Oh my gosh, Jelly Bear?_ " I thought to myself, as the bear came closer.

Then, despite how awful I felt and how hurt I was, as even my head was still hurting at this point, and my shoulder where they shot me was in lots of pain, I then remembered, this wasn't Jelly Bear, it was the Jelly Bear balloon my daddy had invented before coming on this trip. My daddy was on his way to save me! But then, as the balloon gotted higher into the air, I didn't see my daddy, but a basket with Rosie, Dilly, and all of my friends! They were all on their way to rescue me! Oh, but if I let go of this railing, I was going to collapse to the ground again.

"Rosie!" I called, but seems she couldn't hear me, as she didn't say anything back.

At this point, I was at a loss as to what to do. I was tired, hungry, thirsty, and hurt really bad, not to mention, I felt just miserable. I know the rule is, boys aren't spose to cry in front of their girls, but I didn't care. I slumped down to the floor of the balcony place, and started crying at the top of my lungs, hoping I'd get Rosie's attention.

End of Tommy POV

"Guys! I see him!" Rosie cried, as she spotted Tommy on the balcony, crying in pain.

"Oh no!" Cried Zack, as he got a closer look through his telescope.

"What is it Zack?" Rosie asked.

"Uh, Rosie, we'd better rescue him quickly, he's in some serious trouble if he's crying and he appears to be covered in booboos and some cuts." Said Zack.

"We've gots to help him, come on everybody." Said Rosie, as Hazel ran up to her.

"I'll help you, after all, you're my bestest friend." Said Hazel, as she grabbed on to Rosie and started to pull her out of the basket in the direction of the balcony.

"Can you reach it?" Hazel asked.

"No, not quite, Dil, can you move the basket thingy closer?" Rosie called.

Dil started hitting buttons on the little control panel, till he found one that caused the balloon to change directions. After playing for a few minutes, he figured out which ones went in which directions.

"No, your other left." Rosie cried, as Dil kept hitting the button that was making the basket move away from the balcony fence.

"I didn't know we had two left sides." Said Dil, as he hit the button opposite from the one he was hitting, as the basket crashed into the balcony fence.

"Stop!" Rosie cried, as Dil let go of the panel, and sat down on the floor of the hot air balloon basket.

At this point, Rosie climbed out of the hot air balloon on to the balcony, where she approached Tommy, who was still crying. Rosie walked up to Tommy and lay a hand on his right shoulder, the one that wasn't wounded.

"Tommy, you can calm down now, I'm here to save you." Said Rosie.

Tommy stopped crying, wiped away the tears with his left hand, and looked up at Rosie.

"Thanks Rosie." Said Tommy.

"Are you ok Tommy?" Rosie asked.

"No Rosie." Tommy replied, as he spotted the hot air balloon.

"Did you fall? How did you get all of those booboos?" Rosie asked.

"Uh, never mind that right now, we've gots to get out of here, but I'm gonna need some help." Said Tommy, as he tried to stand without holding on to anything, only to have the sharp pain surge through his body again, causing him to collapse to the ground.

"Ow." Cried Tommy.

"Help everybody! Help!" Rosie cried, as she grabbed Tommy's arm, and drug him over to the fence, next to the basket.

"Guys, Tommy is really hurted, and can't move on his own, you need to help him." Rosie cried.

"I'll do it." Jesse called, as he bounced around, jiggling the basket.

"Jesse! Stop!" Lil snapped.

"I'm only trying to rescue Tommy, give me a break." Jesse snapped.

"Yeah Lil, stop the attitude already." Argued Phil.

"Phil, I really like you, but if you and Lil don't stop fighting, then any further friendship between us is over. No worries Rosie and Tommy, we're coming." Hazel called, as she turned towards the others in the basket, and Zack spoke up.

"Ok everybody, all of us need to join together, reach out of the basket on to the balcony, bgrab Tommy, and pull him into the basket with us. Come on everybody, if we work together as a team, I know we can do this." Said Zack.

"You're right Zack, we've gots to save my bestest friend." Said Chuckie, as he let out a sigh, and everybody, except for Angelica, who was too busy talking to Cynthia about what she'd do when she became President, all joined together on the other side of the hot air balloon basket, as they all reached out their small toddler hands, and grabbed at Tommy's legs.

"Ow." Tommy cried, as he tried to bite his lip, trying to hold back any tears. His friends were after all, only trying to save him, not hurt him, but he was beat up so bad, that any touch to his body, really hurt.

"Ok everybody, on three now. One, two, three!" Cried Zack, as he, Bobby, Susie, Jesse, Lil, Phil, Hazel, Chuckie, Kimi, and Dil all pulled hard at Tommy, until they got him over the side of the basket into the balloon with the rest of the gang.

No sooner had they gotten Tommy into the balloon, who collapsed to a sitting position on the floor of the basket, when Dil bumped into one of the buttons on the control panel on the opposite side of the balloon with his back, causing the balloon to float away from the balcony, before Rosie could be rescued.

"Guys! Wait!" Rosie cried, but it was no use, the balloon was way high above the stadium now, higher than the eye could see.

"Gosh Tommy, I see you got a lot of booboos, what happened?" Chuckie asked.

Looking around, Tommy noticed Rosie was missing.

"Rosie! Where's Rosie?" Tommy cried.

"I don't know Tommy." Phil replied.

"I've gots to go back and get her." Cried Tommy, as he grabbed on to the side of the basket, where he spotted the tiny speck of pink hair down on the balcony, noticing they were way high up, but Chuckie, pulled Tommy back, causing the rip in his shirt to be made worse.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" Tommy asked.

"Tommy, you're hurted, I'm not letting my bestest friend go back out there." Said Chuckie.

"But I've gots to go back down and get her." Said Tommy.

"He's right Tommy, besides, we're too high up. I hate to be the barer of bad news, but one more booboo Tommy, and there's a good chance, you won't make it." Said Zack.

"How are we gonna get down?" Jesse asked.

"I don't know, but it's really scary up here." Said Chuckie.

"Got any ideas Tommy?" Kimi asked.

At that moment, the headache got worse, as Tommy tried to think of an idea, only for his mind to go completely blank.

"I don't know." Tommy muttered.

"What?" Zack asked.

"I don't know!" Tommy shouted.

Everyone gasp. They had never known Tommy to not be able to come up with anything before, unless all of his ideas thus far hadn't worked out, but this was a first in a while when he couldn't come up with anything.

"Wait a second, those ropes, I believe they control the balloon." Said Zack, as he ran over to where some ropes were, and pulled on one that was on his right, making the balloon go higher into the air.

"Yay!" Said Chuckie.

"Uh, Chuckie, if I were you, I wouldn't look down, we just went higher, not lower." Said Zack.

Chuckie gasp and covered his eyes.

"I bet this other rope on your left will lower the balloon, give it a try Zack." Said Bobby.

"Eye eye captain detective Bobby." Said Zack, as he pulled on the other rope, only to have it come loose from the basket, not pulling the balloon down, only making it go even higher into the air.

"Uh oh, I think it broked, and there's a wire here, but it's too small of an opening for me to reach in and get it back to where it needs to go. We need a tool to help us." Said Zack, noticing a tiny piece of loose wiring sticking out of the bottom of the rope.

"I know, Tommy's screwdriver would be perfect for this job!" Kimi exclaimed.

"No it won't." Tommy said disappointingly, staring down at the floor of the basket.

Everyone gasp.

"What do you mean Tommy?" Chuckie asked, uncovering his eyes at this point.

Tommy reached into his pockets, pouring the money he had taken out on to the floor of the basket, and holding the two halves of his broken screwdriver in his hand.

"What happened Tommy?" Chuckie asked, studying the two halves of the screwdriver in his hand.

"It broke." Tommy replied, looking about ready to cry again.

"Give that to me Tommy, I can't fix it right now, cuz I lefted all of my doctor's stuff back at the hotel, but I'll look at it when we get back." Said Susie, as she ran up to Tommy and grabbed the two broken pieces of plastic screwdriver out of his hand, and gave them to Bobby, where he placed them into his shorts pocket, since Susie didn't have any pockets in the dress she was wearing at the time.

"I'll give it back to you once we're at the hotel." Whispered Bobby into Susie's ear.

"Thanks, I didn't wish to lose them." Whispered Susie back into Bobby's ear.

Just then, Angelica noticed the pile of money on the floor.

"Oooh! Tommy got a ton of money! Give it to me." Demanded Angelica.

Tommy fell down on top of the pile of money, face down, as his entire body covered the pile of dollar bills.

"No!" Tommy shouted, his voice sounding slightly muffled.

"What, was that?" Angelica asked.

"No!" Tommy repeated.

Just then, Susie walked up to Angelica, giving her an angry glare.

"Come on Tommy, why not?" Angelica asked.

"Angelica, no means no, and if I'm not mistaken, and I'm not, Tommy, is this the money those guys stole from all of those places?" Susie asked.

"Uh huh." Tommy replied in a weak voice.

"How do you know about that, Susie?" Angelica asked in a nasty tone.

"Ever watch the news Angelica? Oh, that's right, all you care about is becoming President, which, if you take this money and keep it for yourself, you'll never become President, because real Presidents don't take money and keep it for themselves. I think I know what Tommy has planned to do with this money, and you're not going to stop him." Said Susie.

"What, give it back to those places? And how is he gonna do that? We leave tomorrow." Snapped Angelica.

"By getting help when we get back down to return it, right Tommy?" Zack asked.

Tommy didn't say anything. He painfully sat up, now kneeling on his knees, as he took his right hand, with the cut on the back of it, lifted it high into the air, as he had more free range of motion with that arm, since the other one was limited as a result of the bullet wound in his left shoulder, and slapped Angelica hard in the face, making an ugly red mark appear on Angelica's cheek.

"Ow!" Angelica cried.

"Tommy, what are you doing?" Chuckie asked.

"Giving Angelica a spanking." Tommy angrily muttered between clinched teeth.

"I can't say Angelica doesn't deserve a good spanking." Said Susie laughing.

"Oh yeah? We'll hjust see about that Pickles." Snapped Angelica, as she punched Tommy in the shoulder, knocking the bullet loose, that was helping the wound not be as bad as it could be, as no sooner had she punched at Tommy's left shoulder, when the bullet went flying out of his shoulder into the basket, when Tommy let out a loud scream, collapsed on to his back on top of the pile of dollar bills, and blood started rushing out of his shoulder.

"Oh no! What's happening?" Chuckie cried, as he glanced over at Tommy, to see the blood rushing out of his shoulder, causing him to pass out at the sight of it, landing on top of Hazel, who scooted out of the way quickly.

Zack turned around, and without saying a word, he took off his dark blue t-shirt, and wrapped it around Tommy's open shoulder wound, so the purple haired toddler, wouldn't lose anymore blood. Then, noticing the open wound on the top of his right hand, Hazel, who was wearing a pair of black shoes and white socks for this particular occasion, took off her shoes and socks, and put a sock over Tommy's wounded hand, and the other sock over it, to give it some protection.

"Thanks Hazel." Said Zack.

"Don't mention it, that was clever what you did with your shirt." Said Hazel.

"Yep, and I'm gonna keep this shirt wrapped around Tommy's shoulder till we get back down, and I can somehow, find some help." Said Zack.

"How are we gonna get down?" Jesse cried, as he started jumping up and down in the basket, hoping to make it go lower, only it kept going higher.

"Jesse! Stop! You're not helping!" Cried Lil.

"I guess not, I was only, trying to help." Said Jesse, as tears started to come to his eyes, and he started crying.

No sooner had Jesse started crying, when Dil looked around, and spotted something.

"I got it!" Cried Dil.

"What, are aliums on their way to rescue us or something?" Zack asked.

"No Zack, I'm serious, I know what will get us back down to the ground!" Dil cried, as he kept pointing to the knob that was in between the ropes that Zack had pulled on earlier to lift the balloon higher into the air.

Zack wasn't sure what Dil was talking about, but Kimi was.

"Zack, I think I know what Dil is talking about." Said Kimi excitedly, as she went up to the knob and touched it.

"Dil, is this what you were talking about?" Kimi asked.

"Yep, turn the knob, I think it will fill or unfill this balloon of air, and send it back down to the ground." Said Dil.

"Ok, I'll give it a try!" Said Kimi, as she turned the knob.

She turned it in one direction, only for the balloon to fill even more so with air, sending it higher into the sky.

"Other way, other way!" Phil shouted.

"Yeah, and quickly, before we all end up in outside space!" Bobby shouted.

"Ok, here I go." Shouted Kimi, as she turned the knob all the way in the opposite direction, until it wouldn't turn anymore, causing the balloon to deflate, sending the basket soaring quickly down through the sky, down to the middle of the baseball field.

Down on the baseball field, it was into the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Nationals needed only one more ball out to win the game. Bucky Majors, who was playing for the Nationals at this particular game, was up, as the swing was thrown, hitting a high fly ball into the air. Rosie, who was watching the game at this point, hoping her friends would eventually, come back down to rescue her, all of the sudden, spotted them coming down really fast through the air, and the deflated Jelly Bear above their heads, as they were screaming in terror for their lives, clutching tight on to one another.

"Oh no!" Rosie cried, as she reached out, only the balloon was moving too fast for her to catch up.

At that moment, the ball went high into the air, right into Rosie's direction. She jumped from the balcony, grabbing on to the ball, as she went after the hot air balloon, hoping she'd somehow catch up to it, only to end up landing in Bucky Major's glove, causing the Nationals to win the game.

"The Nationals won the game, the Nationals won the game!" Shouted several spectators, as Bucky caught the ball and Rosie.

No sooner had the catch of the day taken place, when a loud crash was heard down on the field. Everybody turned to see the hot air balloon with the deflated Jelly Bear on top, had landed in the middle of the field, the toddlers, all inside the basket.

Unknown by anybody, this game was being televised on national television throughout the entire country. Several people saw this go down on TV, including Lou and Lulu back at their retirement home in California, and Rosie and Mary's parents, Shannon and Terry Hall, all the way out in Boston, Massachusetts.

"It's like de ja vue all over again, like what happened at a game I played nearly two years ago against the Boston Boomers, the kid just, sort of, landed in my glove. Only this kid appears to be female with pink hair, the last one was definitely male, with no hair." Said Bucky Majors to a reporter on the television, as Rosie's descent down to the field with the baseball in her hand, reappeared on the television in slow motion.

"Oh my gosh! That's my daughter Rosie out there!" Shannon cried at the television.

Terry said absolutely nothing, passing out on the floor at the sight of his youngest daughter falling through the air on the television.

"And look at this folks, an entire crew landed out of nowhere to greet this child." Said the sports caster, as the cameras moved over to where the hot air balloon had landed, getting a good picture of Bobby, Susie, Angelica, and all of the other toddlers in the balloon.

"Jumping your hearts at that, what are the sprouts doing out there?" Lou asked, as he saw the image of this on the television from his living room at the retirement home.

"I didn't know the beans could play baseball." Said Lulu with a smile, who was sitting next to her husband on the couch, the two of them, watching the game together.

"I'm sure everyone is going to have quite a story to tell us when they get back from Washington D.C." Said Lou to Lulu, as he turned his gaze towards her for a brief moment, before turning his gaze back to the television.

Back out on the baseball field, Bucky Majors set Rosie down in the basket with the other toddlers, at which time, Chuckie uncovered his eyes, and saw Rosie before him.

"Hey Tommy we did it! We saved Rosie!" Chuckie cried excitedly, but no answer was heard from Tommy.

Chuckie turned to see Tommy, still lying on top of the pile of money, Zack's shirt wrapped around his left shoulder, and Hazel's socks on his right hand. The two-year-old, nearly three-year-old child, lay there, motionless, his eyes closed.

"Tommy!" All of the toddlers cried, as they all knelt down around Tommy, and started crying uncontrollably.

"Guys, I'd better go get help." Said Bobby, as he climbed out of the basket on to the field.

"I'm coming with you Bobby, everyone else, stay here." Said Susie, as she and Bobby ran off into the baseball field, making their way towards the bleachers where their folks were previously sitting, to get help.

And this, ends chapter 7. So, will Tommy live to see another day? Will Bob and Mike get caught before it's too late for Sherry Berry and Taffy? How will the concert go? And will everybody leave Washington D.C. and make it home in one piece? Stay tuned, to find out all of this and more, in the next, and final chapter, of this story.

Author's Note: Notice the reference of how Bob and Mike wished they had used a gun on Tommy way back when he threw their rubies into the toilet? Well, aren't you guys glad they didn't? Had that been the case, Rugrats would have most likely ended, after only six episodes. Also, I must say, I found this chapter difficult to write. Having my favorite character from Rugrats, suffer from some pretty serious child abuse? Who knew we'd ever see the day when one of the rugrats would go through this. Just bringing myself to get this chapter written was a difficult task in itself, so, if you made it this far, and made it through the entire chapter, then I thank you! Anyway, there's a good chance the last chapter won't get up until Monday, so have a good weekend everybody, and, we'll be back with the conclusion of this story, very very soon!


	8. Taffy's Concert Tour Begins

Author's Note: I sincerely apologize for taking so long to get this chapter released. Between the emotional uproar that was left on me upon writing the last chapter, other stuff going on, and wanting to get a few shorter stories out of the way, this story sort of, got pushed to the back burner. However, I hope to finish this story by Saturday, July 4, 2015, as there's going to now be a total of 10 chapters to this story. Also, the rating has been changed as a result of the events that took place in chapter 7, and possibly some other events that might take place in later chapters. Without further a due, let's get on, with the next chapter!

Chapter 8, Taffy's Concert Tour Begins

Bobby and Susie made it through the crowds of mingling people until they found the bleachers where their families were sitting. Spotting Peter and Kelly sitting together, gazing into one another's eyes and talking up a storm, they approached them and gave them the news that Tommy was badly hurt, and upon rescuing him and getting back down to the ground in the Dummi Bears hot air balloon, he was knocked out and unresponsive.

"Oh my goodness! My poor baby!" Didi cried, upon hearing this news.

"Come on everybody we all need to head down and see about the kids." Said Peter.

"And I need to go find out where they want me, as I'm opening up for Taffy and her band, who just left to go get ready." Said Sherry Berry, as she got up and she, along with all of the other parents, Peter, Kelly, Sandy, Derek, Mary, Bobby and Susie all gathered up their stuff and headed out of the bleachers down to the baseball field.

However, on the way down there, unnoticed by the bulk of the adults, who were only anxious to get down to their kids, Peter caught something suspicious out of his eye. Two men dressed in what appeared to be uniforms down in the front row of the bleachers. They were looking around, and no sooner had they spotted Sherry Berry walking past with the other grown ups, when one of them pulled a small shot gun out of their pocket.

"There she is Bob, get her!" Hissed Mike, as Bob pulled the gun out of his pocket, aimed it right at Sherry Berry, and was about to shoot, when somebody blocked his path.

Peter spotted this odd behavior out of the corner of his eye, and knew he needed to act fast.

"Everyone! Run! And Kelly, take this down and start performing whatever First Aid you know on Tommy. I'll be there as soon as I can." Said Peter, as he pulled a First Aid kit out of a pocket of his gray Confederate uniform, handed it to Kelly, and rushed over to the two men, twisting his ankle in the process, but he didn't care. Anything to save Sherry Berry, who was definitely their target. Peter made it just in time, before Bob could pull back on the trigger and shoot.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" Bob asked in an irritated tone of voice.

"Excuse me you two, but put that gun away." Demanded Peter.

"And why should we listen to you?" Mike asked.

"Because I'm the king of the Confederacy, and I can already tell you two are up to no good. Now, hand over the gun and put your hands behind your back." Demanded Peter.

Bob and Mike exchanged looks, then, looked back at Peter, who by the look on his face, they could tell he meant business. He reached out, took the gun from Bob's hand, then, taking out a pair of handcuffs from another one of his pockets, he handcuffed Bob and Mike to each side of his body, then led the two criminals down to the field where all of the parents had gathered up their kids, and Kelly was performing First Aid on Tommy.

"Oh my gosh, look at you!" Kelly cried, as she studied over Tommy, who had a bunch of booboos all over his body. Using some cotton balls, anticeptic and several bandages, she saw to patching up the bulk of his wounds. As she was working on patching up his wounds, Tommy became alert again, as he opened his eyes slightly, noticing the pain of the stingy stuff being placed upon the wounds.

"Outch!" Tommy cried.

"It's ok Tommy, like, I'm working on getting your wounds patched up." Said Kelly, as she continued to apply bandages.

No sooner though had Kelly said this, when Peter caught up to the group, handcuffed to Bob and Mike. Of course, this was one sight poor Tommy was hoping not to see. He was hoping to be completely finished with the terrible guys who had hurt him much earlier that day. Upon seeing Bob and Mike before him, Tommy did something that nobody could recall him ever doing before. His face went completely white and he started shaking uncontrollably. Noticing this, Peter tried to get the young toddler to calm down.

"Tommy, it's ok, they can't hurt you now." Said Peter.

"No Peter, they're gonna hurt you." Said Tommy in a weak tone, as he tried to struggle out of Kelly's grip, trying to get over towards Peter.

"Tommy! Hold still!" Kelly cried, as she had him roll over on his stomach so she could apply bandages to any wounds on his back side.

While Kelly continued to perform First Aid on Tommy, Peter, got down to the bottom of this mess.

"Ok you two, while I have you restrained, we're gonna get to the bottom of this. You guys hurt Tommy, didn't you?" Peter asked.

"No, why would we waste our time with a stupid little child like that?" Bob lied.

"I can tell you two are lying. I also see a huge pile of money in the basket of the balloon." Said Peter, pointing to the pile of cash that Tommy once occupied, before Kelly moved him out on to the grass of the field to better tend to his wounds. Then, looking around, he saw that all of the other kids along with their parents and guardians were gathered, eager to see what was going to happen next.

"Peter, Hazel and I have a couple of pieces of evidence that may prove these two guys you have handcuffed to your arms may be guilty." Said Bobby, as he pulled out the ransom note from his shorts pocket and handed it to Peter, while Hazel pulled out the pacifier from her diapers, and also handed it to Peter.

"Who are you?" Peter asked.

"Oh, are you Peter, the king of the Confederacy that Phil toldid me about?" Hazel asked.

"Yes, and where did this pacifier come from?" Peter asked.

"I founded it on the ground yesterday when me and my mommy and daddy were heading back to our hotel from the library." Hazel replied, as she handed the pacifier up to Peter, who examined it, then turned to Bob and Mike.

"Recognize this?" Peter asked.

"Oh yeah, that's the pacifier we tried to use to shut the kid up." Bob replied.

"Oh, and I suppose you wrote this ransom note too." Said Peter, as he read it out loud, then, after studying the note, looking over at the pile of cash, then staring back at Bob and Mike, he saw that it all formed a puzzle.

"You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves." Peter snapped.

No sooner had he said this, when Kelly started to remove the socks that were covering Tommy's right hand, and Zack's shirt that was covering the wound on Tommy's shoulder. No sooner had she done this, when blood started to rush out. Quickly noticing this, she recovered the wounds, and called for some help. Upon hearing this, Peter rushed over as quickly as he could.

"Kelly, I believe I've caught the criminals, what do you need?" Peter asked.

"Uh, Tommy here has some wounds that bandages won't fix, have you seen his mom or anybody who knows more about medical stuff around?" Kelly asked.

"Susie! Go get your mom!" Peter called.

Susie and her mom Lucy headed over to where Tommy was, and Lucy took a closer look at the bigger wounds. While this was all going on, a couple of security guards from the stadium, two Police officers, and a news reporter had caught up to everybody, and started questioning Peter, Bob, and Mike. During their questioning, Didi made her way up to the crowd that had gathered, to spot the note in Peter's hand.

"Something looks familiar about this note." Said Didi, taking the note from Peter's hand.

"What Didi?" Peter asked.

After studying both sides of the note, Didi came to her conclusion.

"On the opposite side of this note is the copy of my itinerary for the trip that I was missing. No wonder these men were hitting every venue we went to this week. And oh my goodness! My son!" Didi screamed, as she looked over to see Lucy patching up the wound in Tommy's left shoulder and the back of his right hand, with some gause and tape. Then, Stu approached his balloon, where along with the cash, he picked up the bullet.

"What is this?" Stu asked the other parents.

"I don't know Stu it looks like a bullet." Said Betty.

Angry, Didi turned towards Peter, Bob, and Mike.

"You, shot, my, child?" Didi asked angrily.

"Hey! The kid was crying and wouldn't shut up!" Mike screamed.

"What else were we suppose to do?" Bob added.

"That's no reason to hurt a child, and my poor child. Oh, Tommy's probably traumatized by all of this, and it's all your falt! Peter, what are we going to do?" Didi asked.

"No worries, I've got a plan." Said Peter, as he pulled out his iPhone from his pocket, and called up General Frolo E. Lee.

"Frolo, this is King Peter Albany here, listen, we have a serious situation going on here. I need you to get together all of my Confederate soldiers, fire up the private jet, and fly to Washington DC immediately." Demanded Peter into his phone.

"Ok your royal hinus, but you do realize that it will take us at least eight hours to get there?" Frolo asked on the other end of the phone.

"No worries, I have a plan for tonight. I have to escort my friends home tomorrow, so I'll text you with further information when I have it." Said Peter.

"You've got it sir." Said Frolo, before hanging up his end of the phone and getting things back in Richmond, Virginia, prepared. He knew it couldn't be good if Peter needed all of this to be done.

Once Peter was finished with his phone call, he signaled to the reporter, Police officers and the security guards to come over, where quite the chat took place.

During this chat between Peter, the criminals, the guards, Police, news reporter and Tommy's parents, Stu looked at the ransom note and back at the guys, noticing something all too familiar about them.

"Wait a second, baby thump, mister thump, I seem to recall something happening a while back." Said Stu.

"What are you talking about dear?" Didi asked.

"Well, you weren't home at the time, and I had been busy with one of my inventions. I came upstairs for a break only to hear the doorbell ring. Upon answering it, a guy was standing there, and he handed me Tommy, claiming that he had learned his lesson, and addressing me as Mister Thump. Before I could get another look at these guys, they ran off in a hurry, jumping in their car and speeding away from our house." Said Stu.

"Is this true? You've kidnapped this child before?" The reporter asked.

"Uh, no." Mike lied.

"Yes, yes we did. We're guilty, completely guilty. We took this kid nearly two years ago in California, and would have kept him, had he not made such a mess. We then tried to drive away, only to have our ransom note fly in our faces, causing us to run a red light, and spend up to a year and a half in jail." Cried Bob, who was nearly in tears at this point.

"I seem to recall something about that in the news a while back." Said the reporter.

"Yeah, me too." Added one of the Police officers.

"Well, enjoy your last night on earth, because tomorrow, after what I've witnessed, you two will be put to death." Said Peter, as the officers handcuffed Bob and Mike to them, and emptied their pockets, where they found several more dollar bills, and the ticket stubs from all of the spectators who came to the baseball game, and a collection of keys.

"So what's the plan King Peter Albany?" The reporter asked.

"I have General Frolo E Lee and several of my Confederate soldiers on their way here via private jet. Since they won't arrive until early tomorrow morning, Bob and Mike are sentenced to one night in prison here in Washington D.C. then tomorrow morning, they will be borded on to my private jet, where they will be flown to the capital of the Confederacy, Richmond Virginia, where they will be sentenced to death." Explained Peter.

"No!" Bob and Mike cried.

"I'm sorry you two, but after what you two pulled, nearly killing one of my closest and dearest friends, steeling money from several tourist attractions here in Washington DC, and who knows what else you had up your mind, you deserve to be put to death. I'd take care of it right here and now, but there are too many young witnesses under the age of thirteen, not to mention, as a result of this mess, we've already caused the start of Taffy and the Salt Water's tour to be delayed by another half hour, and with it being after twenty-two-hundred hours at night, I don't wish to delay it any further." Said Peter.

"As you wish, your magisty." Said the Police officer, as he escorted Bob and Mike, now handcuffed to him out of National's Stadium, off to a patrol car, where he saw to taking them to the local prison for their last night's stay.

"And make sure they have nothing to eat or drink!" Demanded Peter, as the car drove off.

Peter, now hobbling on his ankle he twisted, made his way back to where the gang was gathered, as Lucy was finishing up tending to Tommy's wounds.

"So what's the story?" Chaz asked, upon seeing Peter appear before the group.

"Bob and Mike can't hurt us no more, and I'm about to see to giving the money they took over to the security guard, who will see that it gets returned to all of the rightful places around the area." Said Peter, as he headed over to Stu's hot air balloon, and started gathering up the money, handing it over to several security guards who had gathered.

"So how's Tommy doing?" Didi asked Lucy.

"Well, I have all of his wounds patched up, but he seriously needs stiches in his hand and shoulder, and while I am a medical professional, I am on vacation, and don't have the equipment here to finish the job, nor is my medical license good in Washington D.C. It's only good in California. I recommend you and Tommy head off to the emergency room, I've already called for an ambulance. I also sent Celeste and Kira off to the National Stadium gift shop, as they were still open for another half hour, to see about picking out some new clothes for Tommy, and a new t-shirt for Zack, as his shirt was ruined as a result of being a temporary bandage on one of Tommy's wounds." Said Lucy.

"Oh, thank you, and please tell Kira and Celeste that I'll pay them back." Said Didi, as she headed over to her child, and gently picked him up.

While the bulk of his wounds were patched up, he still hurt, and started to cry.

"It's ok Tommy, mommy's right here." Said Didi, as she did her best to sooth her son.

A few minutes later, Celeste and Kira returned with shopping bags.

"We're back, and we picked out the cutest clothes for Tommy and Zack!" Said Kira, as she got the clothes out of the bag. For Tommy, she picked up a pair of black shorts and a red short sleeve t-shirt with National's Stadium written across the front in large white letters. And for Zack, he too got a short sleeve t-shirt similar to Tommy's, only it was white with National's Stadium written across the frunt in large black letters. Zack put on his new shirt, and showed it off to the group. Along with his red shorts, he looked really cute! Didi helped Tommy get dressed into his new clothes, so he wouldn't catch a cold, and his other clothes were ruined, as his blue shirt was ripped as a result of the bullet wound, and he had so many accidents in his blue shorts and underwear, that they were not savable at this point. Luckily, Celeste still had a pair of pull ups training pants in her purse, which she had Didi put on to Tommy for now, so he would have some form of underwear on, even if it wasn't what he would prefer to wear, seeing he was already potty trained, and had been for nearly six months at this point.

No sooner were Tommy and Zack dressed in their new clothes, when an announcer came over a loud speaker.

"The premier of Taffy's concert tour will begin in ten minutes. To anybody still at National's Stadium who will be staying for the concert, please make your way to the reserved seats section of the bleachers near the stage." Said a female announcer over the P.A. system.

Upon hearing this announcement, the Barrows, Generics, Randy and Susie Carmichael, Chaz and Kimi Finster, Peter Albany, Sandy, Mary and Rosie, Hazel and her parents, Angelica and her parents, the Devilles, Stu and Dil all left the group to go and find their seats, while Lucy, Kira and Chuckie, and Celeste and Zack waited with Didi and Tommy for the ambulance to arrive.

While waiting, Tommy, who was still feeling pretty miserable at this point, not to mention, upset that he'd have to miss Taffy's concert to go to the hospital, squirmed out of his mother's arms and ran over to Chuckie, where he embraced his best friend tight, and cried uncontrollably into Chuckie's shirt, drenching it with tears.

"What's wrong Tommy?" Chuckie asked, but poor Tommy was just, too upset for words. He was starving, thirsty, hurting, had to see those terrible people again, and just, wanted it to all be over.

A few minutes later, roughly five minutes before the concert was due to begin, the ambulance arrived and paramedics walked on to the field carrying a stretcher, where they saw to getting Tommy ready to go.

"Come on Tommy, it's time to go." Said Didi, as she used the jaws of life to get Tommy loose from hugging Chuckie, and handed the crying two-year-old over to the paramedics.

"Calm down little fellow, it's going to be ok." Said a paramedic, as they got him positioned on to the stretcher, but poor Tommy wasn't having it. Deep down, he felt a feeling of vulnerability that he had never felt before. Once again, people he hardly knew were messing with him, and while they were medical personelle, after the week he witnessed with Bob and Mike, the poor child wasn't so sure who he could trust anymore.

Once they had Tommy put on to the stretcher, Didi followed the paramedics back towards the ambulance, where they ran into Sherry Berry, who had somehow, gotten herself lost upon trying to make her way back to the stage from going to the bathroom.

"I'm running late, which way is the stage?" Sherry Berry asked upon seeing Didi along with the paramedics and Tommy.

"I believe it's over that way, good luck with opening up for Taffy, and please tell Taffy that Tommy and I are very sorry we have to miss this." Said Didi, who pointed off towards the direction of the stage.

Looking over at the stretcher, Sherry instantly recognized Tommy, as she had seen his picture on the news the previous day, only his picture looked a lot better than how he looked now, being covered from head to toe in bandages from all of the booboos he got. Feeling bad for this small child, who after talking with Didi during the game, she found out he was a huge fan of her music, Sherry made her way over to the distressed toddler, and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"You feel better dumpling." Said Sherry Berry, as she kissed Tommy's forehead, and made her way to the stage to get ready to open up for Taffy and the Salt Water's.

No sooner had this happened, when Tommy stopped crying, realizing what had just happened.

" _She kissed me! Sherry Berry kissed me!_ " Tommy thought to himself, as the two-year-old quieted down, drifting off into his own little world, as he and Didi were put into the ambulance, and they headed off to the hospital.

Once they saw the ambulance drive off, Lucy, Celeste, Zack, Kira and Chuckie made their way to their seats in the audience. Zack turned to Chuckie, who had a worried look on his face.

"I hope Tommy's gonna be ok." Said Chuckie.

"Don't worry Chuckie, I'm sure he'll be fine. We'll see him back at the hotel after the concert." Said Zack.

Chuckie tried to force a small smile on his face, as the rest of the gang found their seats, just in time for the concert to begin. Once everybody was seated, Sherry Berry came out on stage.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We sincerely apologize for the delay in getting started, but the time has come, for something very special to happen. Before I introduce our guest of honor for this evening though, I'd like to take this time, to perform for all of you." Said Sherry Berry, as she lifted up her yellow shirt and hot pink vest, to reveal her belly button.

"Come on kids, it's time, for the belly button song. You ready?" Asked Sherry Berry, as she started to sing.

 _I found a button but it's not on a shirt,_

 _I found a button but it's not on a skirt._

 _I found a button that's a part of me,_

 _The button in the middle of my tummy._

 _It's my belly button, and it's right, under neath my sweater,_

 _It's my belly button, and it's holding me together._

She sang the next verse, and then, for the final time through of the chorus, she had the entire audience join in to sing with her. After this number finished, once the audience finished clapping and cheering, Sherry Berry made another announcement.

"For my next number, I'd like to dedicate this next number to Tommy Pickles. The poor child couldn't be at the concert tonight, but we can safely say, that despite all he's been through this week, he has been reunited with his family. During the big game, I had a chance to get to know his mother, and she told me how much of a fan Tommy is of my music, and so, I'd like to perform these next two numbers in his honor. Tommy, these, are for you." Said Sherry Berry, as she began to sing her first number.

She performed the Sweet Potatoes song, followed by the song about kissing booboos to make them better. After she finished these two numbers, she asked the question that was on every young toddler's mind in that audience. If Sherry Berry would ask one of them to come up on stage to sing with her, before the official tour began.

"And now, before I turn things over to our special guest of honor, may I have a young volunteer to come up and perform one final number with me this evening?" Sherry Berry asked.

Rosie, who got really excited, decided to make this her chance to perform with Sherry Berry. She was getting good at talking to the grown ups, even though the main adults she spoke to were her parents, and to Sandy when not too many people were around, and now, she'd get to perform a song, which, she too was going to dedicate to Tommy.

"Me! Pick me!" Rosie squealed, as she raised her hands into the air.

"How about the little girl with pink hair sitting three rows back from the front." Said Sherry Berry, as the excited pink haired toddler hopped down from her seat, and ran up on stage to join Sherry Berry.

"And what's your name little mini?" Sherry Berry asked.

"Rosie." Rosie replied.

"Rosie! What a beautiful name! And your hair matches perfectly!" Said Sherry Berry.

"Thank you." Said Rosie with a smile.

"So what do you wanna sing Rosie?" Sherry Berry asked.

"I wanna perform my most favoritest song in the whole wide world. And this song, I too, dedicate to my bestest boyfriend ever, Tommy. Whenever I hear this song, I think of him." Said Rosie, as she started to sway, and opened her mouth to sing. As she sang, Sherry Berry's band joined in, accompanying her on the music, and by the end of the song, the audience and Sherry Berry, had all joined in along with her.

 _Keep on, keep on_

 _Keep on steppin' 'til you reach higher ground_

 _Can't nobody turn you 'round_

 _Step on up you can claim the highest star_

 _Straight ahead, it's not very far!_

 _Keep on, keep on_

 _With the strength of your mind you can be set free_

 _You can overcome your past._

 _Search deep inside and you will see_

 _Time has come at last!_

 _Keep on, keep on_

 _Keep keepin' on, you gotta keep keepin' on_

 _You can make it if you only try_

 _Don't stop reaching 'til you touch the sky_

 _Life has many ups and downs_

 _Plant your feet on solid ground! Keep on!_

 _Keep on, keep on_

 _Keep keepin' on, you gotta keep keepin' on_

 _Through the strength of your mind you can be set free_

 _You can know the? From your past_

 _Search deep inside and you will see_

 _Time has come at last!_

 _Keep on, keep on_

 _Keep keepin' on, you gotta keep keepin' on_

 _Sky is the limit and you know that you keep on just_

 _Keep on pressin' on_

 _Sky is the limit and you know that you can have what_

 _You want, be who you want_

 _Listen, I can't let nobody keep me from reachin' the_

 _Top!_

 _Don't you give up for nothing keep on 'til you get by!_

 _Reach, reach, reach you're almost there!_

 _If you have a goal, set it in your mind!_

 _Reach for it, say to yourself, this will be mine!_

 _K-e-e-p, pressin' o-n spells keep on, keep on pressin'_

 _My friend!_

 _Ain't no half steppin' you've got to keep on pressin'!_

 _Keep on, keep on_

After Rosie finished her song, the audience clapped and cheered, as Sherry Berry led the little girl back to her seat. Rosie was slightly disappointed that Tommy didn't hear her performance, but she only hoped she'd have a chance to give him a private performance before he had to head home.

"Where is Tommy anyway?" Rosie asked.

"Tommy had to go to the hopcickle." Said Zack.

" _I hope he's ok._ " Rosie thought to herself, as Sherry Berry made her way back on stage, where she'd finally introduce the guest of honor.

"And now, the real reason you all came here tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you all to somebody very special. This woman I've known ever since she was a little girl, when she was only five-years-old, and came to one of my concerts, where she came up on stage and performed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with several other children. I've been a huge inspiration to this woman over the years, and inspired her to make music her life, as she started a band, and is now, about to head out, on her first, international tour. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up, for Taffy and the Salt Waters!" Said Sherry Berry, as Taffy and her band came out on stage, and the crowd roared with cheers and applause.

While the crowd roared with cheers and applause, realizing that this would be the last time they would most likely see one another, as Phil's family was heading back to California the next day, and as far as Hazel knew, she would be heading home with her parents, Hazel, who was sitting next to Phil, now wearing her extra pair of clean socks that her mommy had packed for her, turned to Phil, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

"For me?" Phil asked blushing, as he turned to Hazel and smiled at her.

"It's to remember me by." Said Hazel.

"I'm gonna miss you Hazel." Said Phil.

"Me too Phil, but I'll never forget you, and I hope our paths can cross again someday." Said Hazel, as she reached in and gave Phil a hug.

"Yeah, me too." Said Phil dreamily, as he embraced Hazel, then leaned back in his seat, as Hazel did the same, once the audience's clapping started to die down, and Taffy and her band, were now before the audience, up on stage, about ready to start playing their first number.

"Thank you, thank you everyone. And a huge thanks to Sherry Berry for opening up this tour for me and my band. It is an honor to be here tonight at National's Stadium, kicking off my big tour, something I've been dreaming of for many years now, and now, the dream is finally coming true. And so, without further a due, let's get started!" Said Taffy, as she strummed a few chords on her guitar, and began her first number.

Taffy and her band performed for another two hours, wrapping up the concert at around one o'clock in the morning, as a result of the late start. Once the concert was finished, Taffy and her band, the Rugrats and their families, all piled into the limo, and headed back to the hotel, while Hazel and her parents got a cab, and taxied it back to the hotel they were staying at.

While all of this was going on, Tommy was seen immediately upon arriving at the hospital, where his hand and shoulder were stitched up, along with giving him some pain meds, and an antibiotic to take for a few days, which luckily, there was a CVS right next-door to the hospital where Didi got the prescription filled, as while the hospital insisted that they keep him overnight, Didi let them know that they were out of town visiters, and upon looking over their insurance, it didn't cover overnight hospital stays outside of California, unless the child was undergoing surgery. Apparently, either the staff at this hospital were idiots, or they didn't consider putting stitches into a child to qualify as such, so outraged by this, Didi was thankful she had enough money in her purse at this point to afford a cab for her and Tommy to get back to the hotel, and as soon as Tommy was stitched up, she grabbed up her child, put him back into his clothes, and they made a mad dash out of the hospital, heading back to the hotel.

Upon getting back to the hotel, Didi noticed how under nourished Tommy was, and while at this point, it was nearly half past midnight by the time they made it back, she wasn't going to have her child go to sleep without eating something. She rummaged through the fridge in their hotel suite, until she found what appeared to be the only thing still edible at this point. Enough apple juice to fill up one sippy cup's worth, and a plate full of crackers topped with cheese and pepperoni.

"Here sweetie, you need to eat something, here's some yummy apple juice and some crackers with cheese and pepperoni." Said Didi, placing the plate of food and the sippy cup before Tommy who was sitting at the small round table out in the dining area of the hotel suite.

Of course, what Tommy really wanted to do was sleep, he was so tired, and they gave him some pain meds at the hospital that were making him feel a bit drowsy.

"No!" Tommy snapped at the top of his lungs.

"Come on sweetie, you need to eat something." Said Didi, encouraging her son.

Tommy started to cry, while poor Didi, who was also tired, started to cry. The two of them had a good cry for about ten minutes, until Tommy realized he wasn't going to win this battle, and the food did look yummy, so he reluctantly gave in and ate the bulk of the food on his plate, and drank nearly all of his apple juice.

In the limo on the way back to the hotel, the toddlers all had their own little conversation.

"Wow Rosie, you did great!" Said Kimi.

"Thanks, I'm just sorry Tommy had to miss it." Said Rosie.

"Yeah well, I'm just glad Tommy is back with us, and if it weren't for Dil, we would have never made it down to the ground." Said Kimi.

"But you were the one to turn the knob on the balloon." Said Dil.

"Yeah, but you were the one to spot it and point it out. And come to think of it, me and Chuckie o you an apology." Said Zack.

"Yeah Dil, we're sorry we made fun of you and called you names." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too." Said Zack.

"I accept your apology." Said Dil with a smile, as he turned towards Zack and Chuckie, who smiled back at him.

"While we're all apologizing, I'm sorry if my hyperness made you mad Lil." Said Jesse.

"No Jesse, I'm sorry. I guess, I was just, jealous of Phillip, and sad that he didn't wanna spend time with me on this trip, only wanting to spend time with Hazel. And to tell you the honest truth Jesse, I do like you as a friend, just not, like a boyfriend like Rosie likes Tommy." Said Lil.

"Really? You're my friend?" Jesse asked.

"Uh huh?" Lil replied.

"Wow! Thanks!" Said Jesse excitedly, as he leaned back in his seat in the limo.

" _Well, being friends is a start at least._ " Jesse thought to himself, as the limo continued to drive on down the street, inching its way along, as a traffic jam that was coming out of National's Stadium, continued to move along at a snail's pace, making the ride back to the hotel take forever.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss Hazel, but I'm glad to know that we'll never forget one another, and now, I know how Tommy and Rosie feel, having a girlfriend, well, it's, pretty incredible!" Said Phil.

"Yeah, it is isn't it?" Rosie asked.

"And I'm sorry Phillip for getting all mad at you. I should have known that no matter what happens, you'll always be my brother." Said Lil, as she put an arm around Phil.

"Awe, thanks Lillian, and I just want you to know, that you will always be my sister no matter what." Said Phil.

Lil let out a giggle, as the two twins gave one another a hug.

"I'm glad we're all friends again." Said Bobby.

"Yeah, me too." Said Chuckie.

No sooner had Chuckie said this, when the limo pulled up to the doors of the hotel, to let everybody off. However, before everybody got out of the limo to head inside, Taffy, who wouldn't be returning into the hotel, as she and her band were continuing on to New Jersey for their next concert, which would be the next afternoon, meaning this would make it the last time Taffy saw everybody for a while. So upon arriving back at the hotel to drop everybody off, while it was nearly two in the morning, as a result of the traffic slowing everybody down, Taffy took this opportunity, to tell everybody goodbye.

"Well everyone, I just, wanted to thank you all for accompanying me on the start of my big tour, it really means a lot." Said Taffy, as all of the adults circled around her, and gave her a hug.

"Awe, we're gonna miss you too." Said Howard D.

Once the adults had each given Taffy a hug, she made her way over to the minis, and helped them get out of the limo.

"And minis, I'm gonna miss you most of all, and I have something for each of you." Said Taffy, as she handed to each child, a small square package, about the size of a small jewelry box, each one, wrapped in different colored paper. Each child took their small wrapped gift, and gave Taffy a hug, as they exited out of the limo and approached their families. Realizing she had one extra package for Tommy, Taffy approached Stu, where Dil had caught up to him at this point.

"And Stu, this small package wrapped in blue paper is for Tommy. Please tell him Happy Birthday for me, and, please let Didi know that in a couple of weeks, I'll be getting a little bit of time off, at which time I'll be returning home briefly, and can attend Tommy's birthday party at Discovery World." Said Taffy, as she handed the small package to Stu.

"I'll be sure to let Deed know, and to tell Tommy good bye for you. Good luck Taffy." Said Stu.

"Thank you Stu." Said Taffy, as she gave Stu a hug, and saw to getting back into the limo.

Before Taffy could get back into the limo, Sandy ran up, and gave her best friend from childhood a huge hug, as she burst into tears.

"Oh Taffy, I'm so happy for you, but I'm gonna miss you so much. Good luck, and I'll be sure to come see you perform when your band comes to Boston." Said Sandy through her sobs, as she embraced Taffy into a tight hug.

"Oh Sandy, it means a lot that you could come, and I'll be sure to keep in touch." Said Taffy, as she too started to cry.

Once they hugged for a few minutes, Sandy pulled out a small wrapped package for Taffy. It was a flat box wrapped in dark purple tissue paper. Taffy opened it up to reveal a picture frame containing a picture of her, along with Sandy, Bobby, Susie, Angelica, Chuckie, Kimi, Jesse, Phil, Lil, Tommy, Zack and Dil. It was a photo they had gotten taken a few months back when Sandy had come up for a week to visit Taffy.

"Whenever I look at this photo we had taken the last time you came out to visit, I'll think of you guys, thank you Sandy." Said Taffy.

"You're welcome girlfriend." Said Sandy, as she walked up and caught up with Mary and Rosie, as everybody made it inside of the hotel, and Taffy climbed back into the limo.

Upon closing the door, putting on her seatbelt, and the limo driving off to their next destination on their tour, as happy as Taffy was to be starting on this tour, she couldn't help but start to feel just the slightest bit homesick. As the limo inched its way through the streets of Washington D.C. and finally, out on to the main highway that would take them in the direction of New Jersey, Taffy cried herself to sleep, realizing that she'd miss the minis most of all, but knew that once she was at her next concert venue, she'd have the show go on, living out this dream she's had for years to come.

Once inside of the hotel, Sandy, Mary and Rosie headed off to their room to get some sleep, but the rest of the gang, curious as to how Tommy was doing, and if he and Didi had made it back from the hospital, they all headed up to the suite that Tommy's family, the Finsters, and Wehrenbergs were sharing to find Tommy, still barely awake at this point, was sitting at the table, with one cracker with cheese an pepperoni still sitting on his plate.

"Come on sweetie, eat your last cracker, and then you can go to sleep." Said Didi.

Before Tommy could attempt to finish clearing his plate, everyone burst into the room, and the toddlers all circled around Tommy.

"Tommy! You're ok!" Said Zack excitedly, as he went to hug Tommy, who sleepily turned towards Zack, his eyes vbarely open, as he was so tired at this point, it took nearly every ounce of energy just to stay awake.

"So what happened Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

"Did you have to get stitches?" Phil asked.

Tommy held up his right hand with the stitches on the back of it, and pulled his left sleeve up on his shirt, to reveal the stitches that were on his left shoulder.

"We have our goodbye presents from Taffy, let's open them!" Suggested Kimi, as she sat down on the floor with the other toddlers in a circle, everyone with their packages in their lap, about ready to open them.

Upon noticing this, Stu came over and handed Tommy his present, and he went over to the circle to join his friends and little brother. Only, with being so exhausted, he remained standing, as he knew if he sat down, he'd probably fall asleep. Everybody opened up their presents, where each person was presented with a small square box. Inside each box, was a picture of Taffy with each toddler, so in Tommy's package, there was a picture of him with Taffy, while in Dil's, there was a picture of Dil with Taffy, and so on, and along with the pictures, each child got a small puzzle that was made by a friend of Sandy's that Taffy has gotten to know over the years named Robert. Robert had recently gotten his start in making jewelry, working for Premier Designs, but on top of his jewelry making business, he was also getting into making jigsaw puzzles, and thinking of starting a small puzzle company, that would work similarly to such businesses as Premier Designs and Cozy Candles, where the products would be sold via hosting parties, and having the guests buy from the catalogue. One of the first puzzles that Robert made though, was a specially designed jigsaw puzzle for small children, and one that Taffy gave to each of the rugrats along with the pictures she had taken with each one of them separately a while back. When the puzzles were put together, they made a piano keyboard, and Taffy had each keyboard made, so each key had a different letter on top, but rather than the standard A through G keys like in music, these custom made keyboard puzzles, spelled out the words, I Love You and the child's name. So in Zack's case, as he was the only one to put his puzzle together upon opening it, once it was put together, it read, I Love You Zack. Pleased with their gifts, they all sat down on the floor to play with them, only to be interrupted by the adults, who were all exhausted at this point, and all, wanted to go to bed.

"Come on pups, it's two in the morning, time to head to bed." Said Betty, as she gathered up Phil and Lil, and saw to taking them back to their suite they were sharing with the Barrows.

"When is our flight home tomorrow anyway?" Howard D asked, before following his wife out back to their room.

"Flight is at 12:05 PM, and checkout at the hotel is at eleven." Said Stu sleepily, hardly able to stay awake at this point.

The Generics, Barrows, Angelica and her family, and Carmichaels, all gathered up their stuff, and headed off to their rooms, while Kira was helping to get Kimi ready for bed, and Didi was doing the same with Dil.

"Wanna play Tommy?" Chuckie asked, eager to spend some time with his best friend who he hadn't seen in days.

Tommy nodded, and collapsed to the floor, where he slowly crawled over to his bed he was sharing with Chuckie and Zack, where he climbed into bed, spotted Frosty and Wahwah on the bed, so hugged them tight, and no sooner had Tommy's head hit the pillow, when his eyes slammed shut, and the overly exhausted two-year-old toddler, nearly three-years-old at this point, fell asleep. He was still dressed in his new black shorts, red National's Stadium shirt, and the pull up pants of Zack's, but he didn't care. He was too tired to change into his jammies, and wasn't up for waiting for his mommy to finish getting Dil ready for bed, to help him.

"Come on Zack, maybe we should go to bed too." Said Chuckie, as he went over to the dresser, changed out of his clothes into his pajamas, and headed over to the bed.

"Yeah." Said Zack, as he too found his pajamas, changed into them, and got into the bed next to Tommy, and Chuckie curled up on the opposite side of the bed, removed his glasses, put them on to the nightstand next to the bed, and felt around, noticing his Wahwah was missing.

"Hey, where's my WahWah?" Chuckie asked.

Zack looked around, noticing that Tommy was sound asleep, curled up with Frosty and WahWah.

"I know where he is, he's curled up with my bear Frosty and Tommy, but I think after what poor Tommy has been through this week, he needs Frosty and Wahwah more than we do tonight. Goodnight Chuckie." Said Zack, as he lay back on his pillow and closed his eyes.

"Yeah, maybe you're right, night night Zack." Said Chuckie, as he too closed his eyes, rolled over, and went to sleep.

Everybody slept the soundest they had all slept in days, only to cause everybody to wake up late. Everybody except for Tommy, who was so exhausted, that Didi had to put the sleeping toddler into his stroller, as everybody awoke at 10:30 AM, rushed around to get dressed, more or less, skipping showers so they could get their suitcases together, checked out of the hotel rooms, and flag down taxi cabs, as it was going to take quite a few cabs to get a gang of roughly thirty people to the airport. Not only had everybody overslept, but as a result of this, they all missed breakfast downstairs at the dining room, as breakfast stopped at 9:30 AM at this hotel, and they had a plane to catch, so panicked and hungry, everybody gathered up their things, got dressed, and headed out of the hotel, where they found cabs, and saw to getting to the airport slash train station, which were both in the same building, as Sandy, Mary and Rosie were heading back to Boston on a train, while everybody else was taking an airplane back to California. Unfortunately, as a result of being overly tired, Stu gave out some wrong information on the airplane ticket. When they arrived the next day at the airport, they quickly learned that they had missed their flight, because the flight was at 10:05 AM, not at 12:05 PM.

While all of this chaos and frantic running around was taking place, the knocked out toddler known as Tommy Pickles, wasn't having a very restful sleep at this point, as he proceeded to have a nightmare. In the nightmare, he and the other toddlers were on the airplane heading home, when Phil spoke up.

"Hey Tommy, didn't you say we'd try again to meet the pilot of the airplane on our journey back home?" Phil asked.

"Yeah! Let's go exploring!" Said Lil.

"Yeah!" Added Kimi.

"What do you say to that Tommy?" Zack asked.

"Sure, come on you guys." Said Tommy, as he climbed out of his seat, and led the toddlers through the airplane up to the cockpit, where they approached the pilot and co-pilot.

Upon reaching the cockpit though, is when all of the trouble started. When the pilot and co-pilot emerged from the cockpit to face the young toddlers, they appeared as Bob and Mike, pointing guns at the toddlers, ready to shoot.

"Now, we can get you all at once!" Mike said in an evil tone of voice, as he picked up his gun, and started firing.

"Run!" Tommy shouted, as all of the toddlers ran the opposite direction back through the airplane. Tommy, tried to catch up, but it was too late. Bob aimed his gun right at Tommy, shooting him in the back, causing Tommy to collapse, awakening from the dream.

If awakening from a nightmare wasn't bad enough, the poor child, now crying, had once again, experienced something he experienced the previous day. Passing out in one place, and waking up in another. The previous day, it was passing out at the bomb shelter, awakening several hours later on a balcony at National's Stadium, and this time, he had fallen asleep the previous night, or more technically, several hours ago in the wee hours in the morning, at the hotel, only to awaken, crying from his nightmare, in his double stroller next to Dil, in the lobby of the airport slash train station, to his father and uncle Drew fighting.

"How could you cause us to miss our flight Stu? You read about as well as you invent!" Drew shouted.

"Hey, for your information bro, I've had a rough week, with my child missing, and when giving that information, it was two in the morning, and I was exhausted! Why don't you cut me some slack, won't ya?" Stu shouted back at Drew, as several traveling passengers passing through the airport and train station, started staring, giving the gang strange looks.

"Please you two, stop it! You woke up Tommy! Oh, you poor thing, don't worry, mommy's here." Said Didi, as she ran over to the stroller and picked up her son, who not only was crhying from his nightmare, but on top of it all, the pain medication they had given him at the hospital the previous night had worn off, causing his body to be in a great deal of pain again, especially his left shoulder and the back of his right hand, only making him cry louder, as he buried his head into Didi's shoulder, and Didi, tried to rub his back and calm him down, while at the same time, was a bit disgusted at how her husband and brother-in-law were acting, and that once again, they were stranded, because they missed their flight.

"Bad news." Said Randy, as he and Chaz came up to the group, with disappointed looks on their faces.

"We just spoke with the airlines and there's not another flight to California until Tuesday." Said Chaz.

"Until, Tuesday? I can't wait that long! I have an important meeting to get back to at work, that I can't miss! Thanks a lot Stuie, now you're going to jeopardize my job? Huh?" Drew asked angrily between clinched teeth.

"Hey, I'd calm down Drew, I'm having to push back appointments at the hospital because of this flight delay." Said Lucy.

"And Chaz and I will have to delay reopening the Java Lava after being closed down for a week because of this, we're all at stake here, but fighting about it isn't going to fix anything." Said Kira.

"Kira's right, any other ideas on how to get home?" Chaz asked.

"Well, why don't you travel home like we're doing, by train." Suggested Sandy.

"Oh, a cross country train trip sounds wonderful!" Said Didi excitedly.

"Great plan Deed, except some of us need to get back to the office the day after tomorrow, and a cross country trip from here back to California is going to take us, at least, four days if not longer." Said Betty.

"Great, now what are we going to do?" Randy asked.

And, what are they going to do? We'll find out, in the next chapter, so please, do stay tuned! And I'll do my best to not take as long to get the next chapter released.


	9. Heading Home Part 1

Chapter 9, Heading Home Part 1

Poor Tommy was still in the safe embrace of his mother's arms, crying uncontrollably.

"What's the matter with Tommy Deed?" Stu asked.

"Poor Tommy is probably in pain, I wouldn't be surprised if the meds they gave him at the hospital have worn off by now. He does need to take his first dose of his antibiotic, but according to the package, it says to take with food." Didi replied.

"Hey, pardon me for interrupting, but Mary, Rosie and I aren't heading back until this evening, and we've got a table reserved at the All you can Eat Buffet that's right next door to the train station and airport here. Maybe since you guys are all stranded, and none of you were able to get breakfast this morning, on account of oversleeping, would you care to join us for lunch?" Sandy asked.

"Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea!" Said Didi.

"Yeah, I could go for an abundance of food, plus, maybe we can figure out a way to get home." Said Betty, as all of the adults and their kids headed out of the airport slash train station, and saw to heading over next door to the all you could eat buffet restaurant.

By this time, Tommy had calmed down, knowing he would get some food, as Didi put him back into his stroller next to Dil, and they headed over to the restaurant. Dil turned to his brother.

"What's wrong Tommy?" Dil asked.

"A nightscare Dilly, I'll be ok." Said Tommy, in a voice that sounded like he was in pain, but despite the look of pain in Tommy's eyes, Dil decided to take Tommy's word for it, he knew he didn't like his older brother seeing him worried or upset, even though he could tell something wasn't quite right with his brother, he decided to simply sit back in his stroller, and be thankful that Tommy was back, as he did miss his brother terribly over the last few days.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, everybody was in awe over the many foods they had to offer. There was something there for everybody! Chinese food, Mexican food, seafood, and pretty much, anything under the sun! And to Angelica's delight, there was a whole buffet of desserts, completely dedicated to a wide variety of cookies, cakes, and pastries! The gang went to each buffet station, and filled up their plates with mountains of food. Tommy especially enjoyed this, as after hardly eating a single bite within the last week, he was finally going to get to make up for it, and on his third birthday of all things! Zack had a plate of his favorite foods, sausage in barbecue sauce, sweet potatoes, and slices of French bread. Curious about what Zack had on his plate, Tommy asked about it, and Zack let him try a bite of the sausage with barbecue sauce. To Tommy's surprise, he liked it, and was pleased that Zack introduced him to a new tasty food combination, along with the macaroni and cheese, roasted vegetables, and pineapple yogurt that was piled high on to Tommy's plate.

While everybody mostly enjoyed all the buffet had to offer, Angelica indulged herself in the sweets section, consuming two full plates piled high with cookies. She would have gone for a third plate, only Charlotte spotted Angelica at this point, and stopped her.

"Young lady, you haven't eaten anything healthy since we got here. No more cookies." Snapped Charlotte, as she snatched the plate out of Angelica's hand, as she was headed in the direction of the dessert buffet station.

"But that's not fair!" Angelica cried.

"I'm sorry Angelica, but I have to insist." Said Charlotte, as she grabbed her daughter's arm, and drug her back to the table, where a large plate of roasted vegetables, ham, and chetter baked potatoes were set down in front of her, much to her hatred. She reluctantly dug into her food, as she didn't wish to end up in any sort of time out on this trip.

Meanwhile, Tommy had cleared his plate, so Didi used this opportunity, to give him his dose of his antibiotic. He was only hoping the medicine wouldn't taste yucky, but most importantly, that it wouldn't come with any side effects, as he's had to deal with plenty of them over the last year, and he didn't like them at all. As terrible as the medicine tasted, he sucked it out of the syringe, and swallowed it. After taking his meds, and sitting back along with everyone else to digest, the adults had a conversation with regards to how they would see to getting home.

"So, any suggestions on how we're going to get home?" Celeste asked.

"Well, I was looking at the flight schedules on my phone for Logan Airport, which is located in my home town of Boston, Massachusetts, and there's a flight to Yucaipa, California leaving tomorrow afternoon at noon. If you all road the overnight train that Mary, Rosie and I are taking back to Boston, it gets in at around nine o'clock tomorrow morning into South Station, at which time, you guys can take a bus over to Logan Airport, making it in time for the flight." Suggested Sandy.

"Great idea Sandy, but, Boston is like, quite a ways from here, and we're all starting to run low on money." Said Betty.

"Hmmm, that is a problem. Well I'm sure we'll think of something." Said Sandy, as she put a finger to her lips, only hoping to help these people out, who were very good friends, and who she had gotten to know quite well only over the last couple of days, and within the week's time she came out to California a few months back to pay Taffy a visit.

At another table, Kelly was sitting there, talking with her parents.

"Mom, dad, now I know what you're going to say about me and Peter." Kelly started to say, before her parents cut her off.

"Listen, Kelly, we were wrong about you and Peter." Said Howard G.

"Come again?" Kelly asked.

"Well, after seeing how well you and Peter helped take care of Tommy last night at the baseball stadium, it shows how much you've matured." Said Martha.

"And if you and Peter are seriously considering a relationship, that's fine by us. Just, be careful." Said Howard G.

"I will be mom and dad, don't you worry." Said Kelly, as she finished the rice that was on her plate, and went off to find Peter, who was digesting from eating a huge cabossa and some curly fries.

Upon the toddlers hearing the news that they'd get to travel back with Rosie and her family, Chuckie spoke up.

"Did you hear that Tommy? We're gonna get to ride on a train with Rosie!" Said Chuckie.

"Yeah I bet you're really excited about this one." Said Phil.

Tommy nodded, as a terrible feeling of nausea came on in his stomach, obviously a side effect of the medicine, as he felt fine earlier. Despite feeling so nauseous though, he made his way over to where Rosie was sitting. She was at a table with Susie, and from what Tommy could tell, they were being very secretive. No matter, he wanted to spend some time with Rosie, only he was sadly rejected upon approaching her.

"Uh, hey Rosie." Said Tommy.

Rosie looked up from what she was doing and turned to her purple haired friend.

"Hey Tommy, I'm kind of busy right now, can I talk to you later?" Rosie asked.

"Yeah, ok." Said Tommy disappointedly, as he made his way back to where he had been previously sitting, only to find the bulk of his friends and little brother, were heading off to play in one of those large bins of colorful plastic balls, since everybody had a few hours to kill, before needing to get back to the train station, to leave on the evening train to Boston.

"Wanna come play with us Tommy?" Jesse asked, before running off to catch up with everybody else.

"Nah, you guys go ahead, my tummy is feeling kind of funny." Tommy replied, as he lay a hand on his stomach, and sat back in his chair. The bulk of the toddlers ran off to play in the balls, except for Chuckie, who took a seat next to Tommy.

"Don't worry Tommy, I'll stay with ya." Said Chuckie, as he put a comforting arm around his friend's shoulders, being careful to not touch where Tommy's stitches had been inserted.

"G, thanks Chuckie, but you don't have to." Said Tommy.

"I want to Tommy, after all, that's what bestest best friends are for." Said Chuckie, as Tommy sat back, about ready to doze off, as another side effect of the meds, drowsiness, on top of being full from a buffet of food, was settling in. He was about to have himself a little snooze, when something unpleasant, caught the corner of his eye.

Over in the ball bin, a large kid with black hair, wearing a black leather jacket and blue jeans, with a mean look in his eyes, was not being nice to Tommy's friends and his little brother. He was especially, not being nice to Dil.

"Hey kid, move out of my way before I hurt you." Snapped the large kid with dark hair.

"No, I was here first." Replied Dil, holding up a yellow plastic ball.

"Move it!" Griped the dark haired kid, as he knocked Dil over, causing him to land on his back on a pile of balls, hurting him, making him cry.

"Oh no! Dilly!" Tommy cried, as he burst out of his seat, and started to run over to the ball bin, when Chuckie grabbed at Tommy's shirt. Tommy spun around to face him.

"What?" Tommy snapped.

"Tommy, I really don't think this is such a good idea. You've already gots a ton of booboos as it is." Said Chuckie.

"I don't care, I've gots to save my brother." Said Tommy, as he wiggled his way out of Chuckie's grip, and ran off towards the ball bin, where he climbed in, staring face to face with this kid who was being so mean.

"What do you want kid?" The dark haired kid asked.

"You leave my brother alone!" Tommy protested.

"Make me." Said the bigger kid.

Tommy grabbed at the bigger kid's leather jacket, bit down on the white shirt this kid was wearing under neath, only to have the big kid push Tommy off of him, and punch him in the face, giving Tommy a second black eye, on top of the one he previously had, thanks to Bob and Mike's abusive treatment of him the previous day. Upon seeing this, Rosie, who was finished with her project she was working on with Susie, rushed over to find Tommy being beat up by this larger child. She jumped into the ball bin, only to find this kid was running full force at Tommy, who tried to knock the kid down, only this kid was stronger, grabbing hard at Tommy, and knocking him hard into the wall that made up the side of the ball bin, causing him to hit his head and start crying.

"Cry baby, that's what you are, a wimpy cry baby." Scoffed the larger kid, as Rosie approached him.

"You stop that, and leave my boyfriend alone!" Demanded Rosie.

"Make me pinky." Said the larger kid.

"The name's Rosie!" Cried Rosie, as all of the other toddlers at this point, had made their way out of the balls bin, and were back at the table with Chuckie, hoping this kid wouldn't finish Tommy and Rosie off.

"No! Don't hurt Rosie!" Tommy cried in between his sobs of crying from the pain, as he painfully made his way towards the exit of the ball bin. On the way there, he grabbed at Rosie's dress. Upon noticing this sudden grab of her dress, she turned her head to see it was Tommy.

"Come on Rosie, let's get out of here." Said Tommy, who was no longer crying, but pretty angry about what all went down, and deep down, feeling quite vulnerable inside, and really wanted this trip to end.

Rosie quickly turned around and followed Tommy out of the ball bin, where they quickly ran back over to where they had all been sitting, when Didi looked up to see Tommy now had a second black eye, and upon examining his head, he had a large bump on the back of his head.

"Oh my goodness! Tommy! Everyone, we'd better go, before anymore of our kids get hurt." Said Didi, as everybody gathered up their kids, paid the bill, and headed back to the train station, where they were thankful that while there were no more rooms available in the sleeping car, despite being such a large group, there were still plenty of seats still available in Coach for them to make this detour in their journey home.

"I just have one question. Whatever happened with the Laveens?" Howard D asked.

"Oh, Hazel's family? She and her parents took a morning train out early this morning to head home, as her parents needed to get back to work for tomorrow morning." Explained Sandy.

While everyone waited for the train to arrive, Tommy sat back in his stroller with an ice pakc on his head where the bump was, to bring down the swelling, and all of the toddlers, curled up in chairs or leaned back in their strollers and took naps. While this was going on though, a television was in the area, showing the news.

"And, in lull of recent events, it's been once again proven that our children are indeed, the future. At last night's baseball game at National's Stadium, the criminals who were at fault for steeling a bunch of money from many tourist attractions in Washington D.C. and for the kidnapping of young Tommy Pickles, have been caught by King Peter Albany of the Confederacy. The money was found in a Dummi Bears hot air balloon, which had been previously occupied by several young children, including the young Tommy Pickles, who was severely injured as a result of some bad abusive treatment from these criminals. The child had several bruises all over his body, a black eye, a large wound in the back of his right hand, as well as a bullet wound on his left shoulder, and as a result of such poor treatment, the criminals, Bob and Mike, have been sentenced to death. And just to prove to everybody how this all went down, here is some recent footage of a video taken just moments ago at the castle of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, and General Frolo E. Lee, with the complete story." Said a female news ankeror on the television, dressed in red, before the picture changed to the footage of sentencing Bob and Mike to death at the castle.

"I along with several Confederate soldiers flew in our private jet to Washington D.C. early this morning, where I met up with Peter early this morning at the airport, to get from him a spare set of keys that nobody else has, the keys, to his lava room. Once I obtained these, and we saw to transporting Bob and Mike to the private jet to fly them to the Confederacy, we took off, and just moments ago, we finished the task, of putting them to death." Explained Frolo E. Lee on the television, before footage of the sentencing was shown.

On the flight to Richmond, Bob and Mike were injected with a powerful substance to knock them out. Upon arriving at the castle, several Confederate soldiers carried the unconscious criminals up to the third floor of the castle, to a room that was hardly ever used. It had a large white door that remained locked at all times, and Peter was the only one with a set of keys to this very important, off limits room. However, he gave them to Frolo for this occasion, since Peter was in the process of accompanying his friends on this trip, and couldn't exactly leave to attend to this duty. Upon opening the door to the room, steam met the air, as the men walked in carrying the unconscious criminals, to what appeared to be a large pool before them, only instead of being filled with water like an ordinary swimming pool, it was filled, with lava. Frolo blew into a whistle he was wearing around his neck to give the other soldiers the signal to do their job on command, and no sooner had Frolo blown his wistle, when the soldiers tossed Bob and Mike's bodies into the lava pool, where they sank, never to be seen again.

"And that is the story, of the death, of Bob and Mike. And thanks to the young children of our generation, America has been saved, and Taffy has finally begun her international tour. Her opening concert was quite a success, as Sherry Berry opened up for the singer, and even had a child from the audience, perform on stage with her. Critics proclaim Taffy to be a success, as she continues to tour the U.S. and hopes to release her tour album, When Dreams Come True, sometime early next year. Taffy was seen earlier today performing in New Jersey at an event to raise awareness for many different types of children's cancers, and on Tuesday night, she is expected to be performing with her band at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, which has already been sold out." Explained the female news ankeror on the television.

No sooner had this news report finished, when an announcement came over the P.A. system.

"Train to Pen Station on track 40 has arrived." Said a male announcer on the P.A. system. Upon realizing this fact, the gang gathered up their kids, and made it on to the train, where they saw to taking their seats.

"So where's the sleeping car?" Chaz asked.

"It will be on our connecting train out of Pen Station." Said Sandy, as she took a seat, and the train pulled out of the station.

As the train rolled along, Peter made an announcement.

"Everybody, I'd like to apologize for all of the trouble I helped cause. Had I not been texted by Frolo early this morning to meet him at the airport, after only getting a few hours of sleep, then been busy with helping to get Bob and Mike transported from prison to my jet, and handing over the keys to my private lava room to Frolo, only to return by about eight in the morning, ffalling back to sleep from exhaustion, I would have given everybody a wake up call with plenty of time, so we wouldn't have missed our flight home. For this reason, I know I agreed to not pay for anything more than the original trip that was planned, but since I helped contribute to us being late for our original flight home, thus, missing it in the end, I'm going to pay you all back for your train tickets, and I'm going to pay for your tickets on the Peter Pan bus from South Station to Logan Airport when we get to Boston, and our plane tickets out of Boston to California." Said Peter.

Everybody clapped and cheered at Peter's announcement, as the toddlers, who were still napping at this point, stirred, looking around to find themselves, on the train with their families. The rest of the trip to Pen Station was uneventful, as everybody more or less, sat back, and enjoyed the ride in silence. Everyone except for Peter and Kelly, who exchanged a few words.

"Look, Kelly, I just, wanted to say, that I'm glad we could have this trip together, and I'm sorry it has to end so soon, and if I helped come between you and your parents, well for that, I am very sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me." Said Peter.

"Peter, I'll admit, while at first, when I moved to California, I had a major crush on you, as I was really hurting inside, seeing that my last boyfriend, George, how he broke up with me because he wasn't interested in a long distance relationship, well, after getting to know you, and see you be so busy, and learn your ways of royalty, while I know you need to take a wife to be your queen of the Confederacy, I don't like to say this, but, I don't feel I'm the right one for the job. I'm heading off to college in another week, and, well, maybe, it would be better, if you were with somebody closer to your own age. After all, there is a four year age difference between us, and we are rocking the cradle." Said Kelly.

"Now Kelly, that doesn't matter to me, but if you'd rather go off to college, and hope to find new love there, I do understand, and I appreciated the time we did have together. I do hope though, that we can still be friends." Said Peter.

"I'd like that." Said Kelly, as they smiled at one another, and gave one another a hug.

In another seat on the train, Angelica and Susie were sitting next to one another.

"So Angelica, you still wanna be President?" Susie asked.

"Of course I do Carmichael, but you'll just have to wait until we start kindergarten to see what happens." Said Angelica, as she snuck a cookie out of her Cynthia backpack that she managed to sneak off of the dessert station at the all you could eat buffet, and started munching on it loudly.

"Mind sharing those cookies with me?" Susie asked, upon peering into Angelica's backpack to see she had snuck a bunch of cookies off when nobody was looking.

"Get your own cookies." Angelica snapped, as she turned away from Susie, and went on to eat her fill of her sneaky snack.

As the train got closer to Pen Station, Chucckie turned to Tommy, and asked him an interesting question.

"So Tommy, now that you're three, and we're not babies no more, have you thought more about what you wanna be when you're all growed up?" Chuckie asked.

Before Tommy could answer him, the train pulled into Pen Station, where everybody had to get off, and go wait inside for their connecting train to show up, which was running half an hour late.

While they were waiting for their connecting train, Tommy couldn't help but notice something very interesting going on near where they were waiting. A filming crew was near by, shooting a scene for the upcoming latest film to be hitting theaters around the holidays, Murder in the Train Station. Curious about this display, Tommy, who was sitting on Peter's lap, turned to him and started asking him some questions.

"Hey Peter, what are those peoples doing over there?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, they're making a movie." Said Peter.

"Wow! And I thought movies only appeared on the TV." Said Tommy.

"Well they do Tommy, but this is how movies are made before we ever see them." Said Peter.

Tommy turned his gaze back to the scene. Two guys were shooting at one another with guns, and a man behind a camera was telling them to show a bit more anger when they shot one another. Of course, seeing this gun scene made Tommy a bit nervous, as ever since he saw Bob and Mike with guns, and shooting him, he wasn't so sure if guns were the safest thing to be playing with. Peter looked down at Tommy, who appeared to have a worried look on his face.

"Tommy, you don't have to worry, those guys aren't really going to hurt each other." Said Peter.

"Why not?" Tommy asked.

"Well Tommy, they're just acting, or in your language, they're pretending to fight. It's how people play characters in the movies." Explained Peter.

"But if they're pretending, then why is that guy telling them how to pretend?" Said Tommy, pointing to the director behind the camera.

"That's the director Tommy, he works the camera that will later, put their images on the TV when the movie is finished, and he tells them what to do, and how to act." Said Peter.

"And the guys with the guns aren't gonna hurt him?" Tommy asked.

"No Tommy, because he's only there directing their moves. The guys shooting each other are two of the characters in the movie." Said Peter.

"Oh, ok." Said Tommy, as an announcement over the P.A. system was heard.

"Train 447 for Albany, New York, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Boston, Massachusetts has arrived on track twenty." Said a male announcer over the P.A. system.

The Rugrats, Generics, and the rugrats families all got up from their seats, and headed off to track twenty, where they saw to bording the train. Upon entering the train, everybody was met with some amazing sights. First, they passed through the dining car, where while there wasn't a lot of food left, there were a few desserts left, that were making Angelica's mouth water. After passing through the dining car, they walked through the sleeping car, where they passed by several small compartments, and approached the one where Sandy, Mary and Rosie would be spending the night. And finally, they made it back to one of the coach cars, where all of the toddlers were seated together in a set of facing seats with a table in the middle, and above the seats was a television screen suspended from the ceiling. Over on the wall read a sign.

"Oh look kids, while we're on board, they're going to be running the Super Why Movie!" Said Didi excitedly.

"Oh, Zack will love that." Said Celeste, as Zack let out a giggle of excitement at this news.

Of course, the whole train experience excited Zack, as other than the train they took to Pen Station from Washington D.C. Zack had never been on a train before. And this train really excited him, as there was lots of stuff on it worth exploring. He was hoping that once the adults were off doing their own thing, he could convince Tommy to take them all on an expedition to explore the train.

"Now you kids stay here, except to use the potty, or go rest in Rosie and Mary's room. Sandy said it would be ok, seeing it's a long ride, and we're all very tired." Said Kira, as she got everybody situated in their seats, before going and finding a seat in the isle across the way with the other adults.

Once the toddlers were alone, and the train started to move, Zack turned to the others.

"Isn't this fun? I've never been on a train before." Said Zack.

"I have, but at least this train ride is going much better than the lastest time." Said Chuckie, as he hugged Wahwah tight.

"What happened the lastest time?" Zack asked.

"Well, there was this shadow guy, and Wahwah went missing, and it was really scary." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah, well, at least you got Wahwah back." Said Zack, as he hugged Frosty.

"Yeah, that's true." Said Chuckie.

"Hey, I've gots an idea, why don't we go and explore the train? I bet you'd like to do that, wouldn't you Tommy?" Zack asked.

"No!" Tommy shouted at the top of his lungs.

The other toddlers gasp.

"Huh?" Jesse asked, taken by surprise at Tommy's comment.

"No guys, no more aventures ever. We can use the potty, but that's it. We must stay here." Tommy demanded.

"Wow Tommy, what's gotten into you?" Phil asked.

"Yeah, what's wrong Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

"Nothing!" Tommy hissed, looking down at the floor, a sad expression on his face, looking about ready to cry.

Upon noticing this, Stu was walking by, and saw how down Tommy looked.

"Look at that Deed, it's our son's third birthday and the poor little guy hasn't gotten to really celebrate today, all because we missed our flight, and didn't get home at a decent hour to go have dinner at Potato Mountain, and open his presents when we got home. I'm gonna go to the dining car and see if there's something left for the little guy for dessert. I know it's nearly closing time for the dining car, but there's got to be something." Said Stu, as he headed off in the direction of the dining car.

He returned a few minutes later, with a large piece of green cake with dark purple icing on it, that the people working in the dining car told Stu it was flavored with vinilla.

"Happy Birthday champ, look at you, another year older, and another year wiser." Said Stu, as he set down the large piece of cake in front of Tommy.

The three-year-old eyed the cake, noticing how big it was, but just as he did at the buffet earlier that day, he couldn't resist having more to eat. Tommy dug into his piece of cake, and ate every last bite, except for one small piece, which he handed across the way to Rosie, who was seated across from him, riding backwards on the train, next to Phil, Lil, Jesse and Kimi, while Tommy, Zack, Chuckie and Dil were all riding frontwards.

"Wow, thanks Tommy." Said Rosie, as she put her small piece of cake into her mouth. Tommy just looked at Rosie, nodded and smiled.

Unfortunately, his smile faded when two things happened. As a result of eating so much cake, he started to get a stomach ache, just as the Super Why movie was starting on the TV screen that was above their seat.

"Hey you guys, the Super Why movie is starting." Said Phil.

"Oh boy let's watch!" Exclaimed Lill.

"You gonna watch the Super Why movie with us Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

Of course, the bulk of the gang knew Tommy didn't care much for the Super Why TV series, it was Zack who got everybody into the TV show a few months ago, on a rainy day, when there was nothing on TV but a Super Why marathon for the bulk of the afternoon. Everybody enjoyed it except for Tommy, and at that time, there wasn't much he could do to avoid watching the show, because his leg was still in a cast, healing from when he broke it, and Angelica had managed to hide the television remote before leaving for preschool that morning, causing the TV to be more or less, stuck on the channel airing Super Why for most of the day. Tommy had heard all about the Super Why movie from Zack, a direct to DVD and Blue Ray combo pack release where an evil monster by the name of Webster the Worm, would come along, and destroy every word in the English language, and it was up to Super Why and the Super Readers, to go into the English dictionary, and save the English language, before the abilities to talk, read, and write, were destroyed forever. But no matter how many times he watched the Super Why TV series with Zack, Tommy just couldn't wrap his head around learning how to read by watching a TV show. He'd much prefer have a story book read to him, or learn his letters when he got to preschool. He looked briefly up at the screen, then back down at his friends, his stomach ache only getting worse, as a headache also started to come on, and the child felt like he needed to go potty.

"Uh guys, I've gots to go potty, I'll be right back." Said Tommy, as he got out of his seat, and made his way to the sleeping car to the little compartment room where Sandy, Rosie and Mary were spending the night, whenever they were ready to go to bed, though at the moment, Rosie was watching the movie with their friends and Tommy's brother Dil, unknown to Tommy, Sandy was in the dining car, playing a friendly game of Uno with Kelly, and Derek and Mary were in a seat in the coach car, watching a movie on Derek's portable DVD player.

Inside the little sleeping compartment, was a tiny bathroom, where a toilet and a sink stood. Tommy used the potty in this little location, only his stomach and head were still bothering him upon emerging from the bathroom. When he came back out into the small sleeping compartment, he looked over at the bed where Rosie would be sleeping later. He only knew that this had to be Rosie's bed, as on top of the bed, he spotted the Dummi Bears blanket he had given to her for her birthday when he went out to Boston to visit her with Peter a few months back.

" _Maybe lying down would help me to feel better._ " Tommy thought to himself, as he approached the bed, lay down, and curled up beneath the Dummi Bears blanket, where he shut his eyes, and drifted off to sleep for a while.

Back in the coach car, everyone was enjoying the Super Why movie, until Rosie happened to glance away from the screen for a minute, to notice that Tommy hadn't come back.

"I'm gonna go find Tommy you guys, he's been gone a while." Said Rosie, as she hopped down from her seat.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, what if you get hurt or lost or something." Said Chuckie.

"What if Tommy's losted? I've gots to go find him, I'm not losing my baby boyfriend again." Said Rosie.

"Uh, Rosie, we're not babies no more. Or at least that's what my brother toldid me we'd no longer be babies when we were traveling home from this trip. We'd be all growed up." Said Dil.

"I don't know Dil, I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, and besides, Tommy will always be my baby. Now, I'm off to look for him, you all enjoy the rest of the movie, and me and Tommy will be back before you notice we're gone." Said Rosie, as she left the seat and decided to go look in the first place she might expect to find him, the room where her babysitter and sister planned to sleep later on that night, as there was a bathroom in there, and Tommy did state that he had to go potty.

Upon opening the door to their little compartment, Rosie's eyes landed on her bed, where she spotted Tommy, fast asleep beneath her Dummi Bears blanket. Despite his entire body being covered in bandages, he was still the cutest little boy she had ever seen, and she thought he was the most adorable when he was sleeping. She also could tell that something must really be bothering him, as he didn't seem much like himself ever since they found him the previous day at that baseball game. He was eating larger portions than she ever recalled him eating in the past, he seemed a lot more cranky and tired, and he didn't seem all that interested in doing much of anything. But what really got her worried is how he reacted to Zack's longingness to go explore the train, when he told everybody they had to stay in their seats, unless they had to go potty. She had never known Tommy to act like that before, and she was determined to get to the bottom of what was bothering her beloved boyfriend, not to mention, she had something in her dress pocket to return to him. After staring at Tommy from the doorway for several minutes, she finally tip towed over to the bed, where she lay a gentle hand on Tommy's left hand, that was out from beneath the covers. Tommy opened his eyes and looked over at Rosie.

"Hey Tommy, you didn't seem to be feeling all that well back at our seat. Did you have a nice nap? Are you feeling better?" Rosie asked.

"I always feel better when I'm with you." Said Tommy with a smile, as he reached out to give Rosie a huge hug, just as Rosie toppled over on to the bed on top of Tommy, where the two toddlers giggled and rolled over, putting Rosie on the side of the bed closest to the wall, her back to the wall, as she lay on her side, with Tommy on his opposite side, his back towards the outside edge of the bed, making the two love bird toddlers, lie side by side, staring into one another's eyes.

After they caught their breaths, they lay there for several minutes, smiling at one another, before Tommy's expression changed from a smile to a frown.

"Something wrong Tommy?" Rosie asked.

Tommy thought for a minute before replying. He could tell that at this very moment, he and Rosie were alone, and it would probably be the only time they would be alone, so he figured that now was the best time if any, to tell her something.

"Rosie? Can I tell you a secret?" Tommy asked.

"Sure Tommy, what's bugging you?" Rosie asked.

"I'm really ascared." Said Tommy.

"What?" Said Rosie.

"It's true Rosie. I'm ascared of people." Said Tommy.

"People?" Rosie asked.

"Not peoples like you or my friends, mommy, daddy and Dilly, I'm talking about the peoples we don't know. I mean, what if everybody is out to hurt us or something?" Tommy asked.

"If you're worried about those peoples who hurted you Tommy, you don't gots to worry about them no more, Peter destroyed them." Said Rosie.

"Yeah, but, what if they're not the onliest peoples to be mean? You sawed that big kid at the ball bin place, and how he hurted me. I'm ascared to go on anymore aventures, well, cuz I'm ascared of getting hurt. I had a terrible nightscare earlier where the peoples flying our airplane home hurted me, Dilly, you and all of our friends." Said Tommy.

"Now Tommy, there's gonna be lots of peoples in this world. Some will be mean, but there's plenty of nice ones too. Just remember what I sang in that song at the concert yesterday night." Rosie started to say, before she stopped herself.

"What? What is it?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, I forgot, you weren't there at the concert." Said Rosie.

"Well, that's ok, you think you could sing me the song right now? Just for me? Please?" Tommy asked.

"Sure, I'd be happy to." Said Rosie, as she opened her mouth, and sang the song she sang on stage the previous night at Taffy's concert with Sherry Berry and the rest of the audience. As Rosie sang her song, Keep On to Tommy, he closed his eyes and had flashbacks of all of the adventures he had been on over the last two years of his life. Some of the flashbacks included the following. His first birthday party, where he's stuck to the Hover Rama, trying to reach for the dog food, his trip to the movies where he went off looking for Reptar, his backyard adventure of playing pirates, his trip around the world to find the giant potty and flushing the giant flusher, defeating those bunches of Mr. Friend dolls in his backyard, looking for Lady Luck at the senior's center, his adventure in the forrest after Dil was born, his trip through Paris with Chuckie in that giant Reptar robot as they made their way to Notre Dame church, lying in a hospital bed, as he suffered from the Gray Plague, hoping he'd get better one day, crossing the street in Chuckie's pedal powered car when his Reptar wagon went missing, climbing up to the giant play structure to get Angelica's Cynthia back at Chuckie's preschool trial run, only to get a splinter and a wasp sting in the process, throwing sand in Josh and Timmy's eyes after they managed to put Rosie up high into a tree on the day they met when Rosie was in Tommy's town, seeing her grandmother off into heaven, rescuing Kimi at the indoor play place, while standing on his broken leg, throwing up all over the marathon finish line in Rosie's backyard, as Reggie slipped and fell into the pile of vomit, pushing Reggie off into the duck pond at the park in his own neighborhood after getting those nightmares post returning from his visit to see Rosie, learning how to swim on that camping trip he recently took with Bobby, uncle Ted, and his grandpa Lou, all the way up to his most recent memory, throwing ice on to the floor of that bomb shelter after Bob and Mike had shot him, hoping to get rid of them, once and for all. As he thought about all of this, while listening to Rosie's beautiful singing, he couldn't help but realize the message of Rosie's song. No matter what terrible things had happened in his past, and he had witnessed a lot of them, especially as a two-year-old, he couldn't give up. He had to keep reaching for the stars. Though even though he planned to never give up, he couldn't help but still have an ounce of vulnerability deep down inside of him, a bit of uncertainty about who else he'd encounter in his lifetime.

Once Rosie was finished singing her song, she reached in, kissed Tommy on the cheek, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. Not long after Rosie was fast asleep, Tommy fell back to sleep too, where he had an interesting dream. He was back in the airplane again at the cockpit, only this time, he was holding a camera in front of him, like the one he saw the director using at that train station to shoot that movie scene. Bob and Mike were at it again with their guns, about to shoot all of his friends, Rosie, and his brother Dil.

"Stop!" Tommy shouted from behind the camera.

Bob and Mike stopped upon his saying that, and everybody froze, not moving another muscle.

"Bob, Mike, turn around." Said Tommy, as Bob and Mike turned around, and went back to their seats in the cockpit.

"Guys, run back to your seats." Said Tommy to his other friends and Dil, who all turned around, and ran back up the isle of the airplane to their seats.

Once Tommy saw his friends were all safely back in their seats, he turned towards Bob and Mike, biting his lip, as he knew he had to face them, and it wouldn't be easy.

"Hey, why didn't you guys try to hurt me?" Tommy asked the pilot and co-pilot.

"We'd never hurt the movie director." Said Bob.

"Yeah, without you, there'd be no movies." Added Mike.

" _No movies huh? Hmmm._ " Tommy thought to himself, as the dream faded away, and he awoke, to find he was still lying in the bed on the train next to Rosie, and Rosie was curled up next to him, sound asleep. Now Tommy lay there, his eyes half open, as he gazed dreamily at his girlfriend, admiring how cute she looked while she slept peacefully, wrapped in his arms.

His last dose of pain medicine had warn off, as his shoulder was really bothering him, but he didn't care at that moment. He was curled up with his most favorite person in the whole wide world at that moment, and at that moment, he was hoping it would never end.

While the two toddlers were asleep next to one another, Sandy eventually came into the room to grab a few hours of sleep in the bed across the way, when she stopped for a minute, to stare at the two toddlers, curled up together, asleep.

"Awe, they're so cute!" Sandy whispered to herself, as she made herself comfortable across the way in her bed, as Mary had fallen asleep next to Derek out on the train while they were watching their movie on DVD.

Early the following morning, on August 12, 2014, the train was getting closer to Boston, Massachusetts, as while it had made stops in Albany, NY, Pittsfield, MA and Springfield, MA, only passengers getting off at those stops had to leave. Anybody continuing on to Boston remained on board. However, it was now early the next morning, and the sunlight was starting to stream into the train windows, causing everybody to wake up. They also made a stop in Worcester, which wasn't announced on the original announcement, but they would make stops at other places along the way.

"This is the train to, Boston, the next stop is, Worcester." Said an electronic sounding male robotic voice over a P.A. system, as the train pulled into the station in Worcester, and let a few passengers off.

"Please watch the gap between the train and the platform." Continued the robotic male voice, as the doors leading out of the train opened to let passengers off, and passengers heading to Boston on to the train, before they closed and the train took off for Boston.

"This is the train to, Boston. The next stop is, Boston." Said the robotic male voice, as the train inched its way closer to Boston. By this time, everybody was awake, including Rosie and Tommy, who were still laying side by side together in bed, looking at one another.

"Wow, that was the bestest night sleep ever!" Said Rosie.

"Yeah, it was nice sleeping with you." Said Tommy.

"And no worries Tommy, your secret is safe with me." Whispered Rosie into Tommy's ear.

Tommy nodded and smiled, knowing that what he had shared with her the night before, would remain strictly between them forever.

"Say, aren't boyfriends and girlfriends spose to sleep together? Or at least that's what I've always heardid on the TV anyway." Asked Tommy.

"Yeah, I think so, and we sure did sleep together, and it was fun! I wish we could take nappies together all of the time." Said Rosie, as she yawned and stretched, as she got out of bed, Tommy, following after her.

"Yeah, me too." Said Tommy, as he turned and gazed at Rosie.

Of course, while the two toddlers slept together, they had no idea what the term, sleeping together really meant, but for now, as far as they were concerned, it would mean what they had done the previous night, curling up and going to sleep together, in terms of the taking a nap kind.

As Rosie and Tommy were walking out of the sleeping compartment to head back to the seats where they were sitting with their friends the night before, Rosie grabbed Tommy's arm and spun him around for a brief moment.

"What is it Rosie?" Tommy asked.

"Well Tommy, I just wanna say, that I'm gonna miss you, and I'm sorry we didn't get more time together, as once we get into Boston, I've gots to go home, and you'll be going on an airplane all the way back to your home in California." Said Rosie.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you too, but I'm happy we got some time together, and there's always the nextest time." Said Tommy with a smile, as he stared at Rosie, the grin never leaving his face.

He felt the happiest he had been in days, and it was thanks to Rosie, for making him feel like his old self again.

"Ooooh, I almost forgot, I have something for you." Said Rosie, who reached into her dress pocket to pull out Tommy's plastic screwdriver.

"For me?" Tommy asked, taking the now fixed screwdriver from Rosie.

"Uh huh? Me and Susie fixted it yesterday. That's why I couldn't play with you at the place with all of the nummy food." Said Rosie.

"G, thanks!" Said Tommy, as he placed the screwdriver, which had been glued back together so well, that nobody could easily tell it was once broken, into his shorts pocket.

"You're welcome baby." Said Rosie, as she gave Tommy a hug.

"Baby? I'm not a baby no more. A big kid, maybe, but not a baby." Said Tommy.

"You'll always be my baby." Said Rosie, as she gave Tommy a hug. He just relaxed and hugged her back, as if he was going to trust her with his secret fear of people, he might as well let Rosie think of him as a baby, as he was still technically a baby when they first met.

Once they finished embracing one another, they hurried back to their seats, where two bowls of cerial were waiting for them at the table that was in the middle of their little row there, separating the two rows of facing seats. Everyone else was nearly finished with their breakfast, and talking about all they enjoyed in the Super Why movie the night before. Tommy and Rosie though, decided to ignore the Super Why talk that was going on around them, and enjoy their last few moments together, before they would have to say goodbye.

No sooner had Tommy and Rosie finished their breakfast, when the train pulled into Boston South Station. Everybody gathered up their things and got off of the train, and while they were waiting for the bus to take them to Logan Airport, they all told Sandy, Mary and Rosie goodbye, as they were about to head down to the MBTA, to take a subway back to Mary and Rosie's apartment.

"Goodbye Mary, I hope we can keep in touch." Said Derek.

"Do you have Facebook?" Mary asked.

"Yep, I do, just do a search for Derek Generic, I'm not hard to find." Said Derek, as he and Mary smiled at one another, shook hands, and departed, as Derek caught up with his family, and Mary caught up with Sandy and Rosie.

Rosie, who was in her stroller, passed by Tommy, who was in his double stroller next to Dil, as she waved goodbye to Tommy, and Tommy, waved goodbye back, the smiles, never leaving one another's faces.

And this, ends chapter 9. So, what will happen next? We have one more short chapter, covering part of the airplane trip back to California, so please, do stay tuned!


	10. Heading Home Part 2

Chapter 10, Heading Home Part 2

Once everybody had said goodbye to Rosie, Mary and Sandy, their bus had arrived, and they saw to heading over to Logan Airport. The bus ride was more or less, uneventful, as it was short. However, Tommy was thinking long and hard about what he wanted to be when he grew up. After witnessing that movie scene being shot the previous night at the train station, and having that dream where Bob and Mike didn't hurt him because he was behind the camera, it gave him a really good idea of something he'd like to do when he was all grown up.

" _I think I knows what I'm gonna do when I'm all growed up._ " Tommy thought to himself, as the bus pulled up in front of Logan Airport, where a swarm of passengers got off of the bus, including the Rugrats, Generics and their families. Everyone headed inside of the airport, where they bought their tickets, thankful the flight hadn't been sold out, nor had they missed it, despite their connecting train at Pen Station running half an hour late the previous night. They got through security quickly, and were no sooner at their gate, when the plane was boarding. They got on to the plane, and just like the one they took from Yucaipa to Washington D.C. this plane also had a row of seats that went all the way across, where the toddlers sat together.

Everybody was relieved to finally be on the plane that would carry them home, as they all were ready to return home and sleep in their own beds again. The flight attendant came over the loud speaker, gave all of the information on the emergency stuff on the airplane, and before they knew it, they were taking off to the sky. While in flight, the toddlers struck up a conversation.

"So Tommy, I tried to ask you something yesterday, but you never answered me." Said Chuckie.

"What was that Chuckie?" Tommy asked.

"What do you wanna be when you're all growed up?" Chuckie asked.

"Well, I wanna make movies like that director guy was doing with the camera at the train station." Tommy replied.

"You? Make movies?" Phil asked.

"Sure! I mean, we already have lots of fun pretending and playing make believe, and if we made them into movies, we could enjoy them for years to come, and so can our children and families that come after we're gone to Heaven." Said Tommy.

"You do have a point." Said Zack.

"I think it sounds like fun!" Said Kimi excitedly.

"But even if you could make movies, we don't gots a camera." Said Chuckie.

"My daddy's gots one, I think it's called a clam quarter. The nextest time he's gots it out when we're back home, I'm gonna make my firstest movie." Said Tommy.

"What's the movie gonna be about?" Zack asked.

"Well I don't know exactly, but I'm gonna make my firstest movie, and it's gonna be the bestest movie yet." Said Tommy.

" _And when I'm behind that clam quarter, I'll be safe, and no meanies can hurt me no more._ " Tommy thought to himself, as his secret vulnerability spoke up in his mind again, trying to calm himself down with the thought of being out of harm's way, if he directed his friend's every moves from behind a camera, opposed to crawling through an airduct replica at a Spy Museum, only to get kidnapped, and live out what had to be by far, the worst week of his life, and one week, he hoped he'd never have to witness ever again, for as long as he lived. Thinking this thought, Tommy leaned back in his seat on the airplane, as he tried to relax, and put this last week behind him, only looking towards the future, and what would soon be, a new chapter in his life.

"So Tommy, are we all growed up?" Dil asked.

"I don't know Dilly, but we're certainly not babies no more." Said Tommy.

"We're only big kids, aren't we?" Jesse asked, a bit disappointed.

"Maybe? But we did a lot on our trip to prove that we're almost all growed up, like thanks to getting help from Peter, we saved America. And even though those meanies had hurted you Tommy, you never gave up on us, even if you've grown a bit more careful over the last couple of days. Not letting us explore the train, while it tooked us by surprise, was probably the most growed up idea you've ever come up with in the time I've known you." Said Zack.

"Yeah, Tommy finally agreed with me for once." Chuckie muttered to himself.

"So Tommy, when will we be all growed up anyway?" Lil asked.

"Hmmm, I'm not sure exactly, but I do know that every year at our birthdays, our mommies and daddies will say, we're another year older, and another year wiser, as my daddy said that to me yesterday night when giving me my piece of birthday cake." Said Tommy.

"Ok so every birthday, our moms and dads will say we're another year older, another year wiser." Said Zack.

"Uh, Zack, you don't gots a mom and dad, only an aunt." Said Jesse, interrupting him.

"I've gots an idea here, let me go with it ok?" Zack asked, irritated at Jesse's comment.

"Sorry." Said Jesse.

"Ok you guys, every birthday our mommies and daddies will say, we're another year older, another year wiser." Said Tommy, getting everybody back on topic.

"We're gonna go to preschool to get an education!" Exclaimed Chuckie excitedly.

"And live each and every day like a mini vacation!" Exclaimed Kimi excitedly.

"All growed up!" Shouted all of the toddlers in unison at the top of their lungs.

"We really wanna shout it out!" Chanted Tommy at the top of his lungs.

"All growed up." Chanted all of the toddlers in unison again.

"We want the world to know!" Chanted Zack at the top of his lungs.

"All growed up." Chanted all of the toddlers in unison again.

"We really wanna shout it out!" Chanted Jesse at the top of his lungs.

"All growed up with, you! All growed up with, you!" Shouted all of the toddlers in unison, as they giggled and cheered, pleased that while they weren't babies anymore, they were officially big kids, and officially on their way, to becoming grown ups, as the plane continued to soar through the sky, traveling from Boston, Massachusetts, all the way home, to the comfort of their beds and backyards, back in Yucaipa, California.

And this concludes, The Washington D.C. Story.

Author's Note: So, I hope everyone enjoyed that story. So, what do you think? Do you feel this would have made a good series finale to Rugrats and Bobby's World? Or did you like the original series finales the two TV shows had in the first place, which I know for sure with Rugrats, it was Kimi Takes the Cake, and I believe for Bobby's World, it was Back to the Furniture. Also, there's something I forgot to point out on chapter 9. The Super Why Movie doesn't actually exist, I came up with that movie all on my own, but you never know, it could possibly happen some day, or maybe it could be a fan fic story for down the road, and the Rugrats venture into the movie to help the Super Readers save the English language. If anybody's interested in doing this idea, go for it, I look forward to reading the story when it's up! And, you may be thinking, Tommy's first venture into film making was discovered, when he took his dad's camera and shot his first film, Creatures of the Backyard, as Didi pointed out in the AGU episode, Truth or Consiquences. However, that was when his mom found out about his decision to go into film making. The toddlers knew way before that movie was ever made, and it was on their flight home from Washington D.C. one day after Tommy's third birthday, when this idea to make movies, was revealed to the toddlers at least, even if it wouldn't be known by the adults for another month, as Didi claimed Tommy was 37-months-old when he did that, which would make him 3-years-old and 1-months-old, while at the time they were traveling home from Washington D.C. he was barely 36-months-old. And finally, this had to be by far, the most difficult and challenging story I ever wrote, not to mention, probably one of the most time consuming ones at that. To everybody who supported me and reviewed this story, I thank you for sticking by my side, you fans are truly the best. With that, I hope everybody takes care, and, I can promise, there'll be plenty of more stories, coming soon!


End file.
